The Grass is Always Greener
by ADoctorLikeMartha
Summary: This is the story of Blaine and his sister who has a few issues of her own to figure out.
1. Chapter 1

Reegan hated cheerleading. It wasn't so much the tumbling, the cartwheels, the human pyramids, the dance routines that Reegan despised. No, Reegan couldn't stand the miniskirts, the teeny tiny sweater tops that left nothing to the imagination, the perky hairstyles that attempted to tame her wild curls, the pompoms, the glitter that covered her cheeks and eyelids and most of all, the girls. Maybe she was a traitor to her gender, but Reegan preferred to be at least 50 feet away from any and all girls. She couldn't pinpoint exactly what part of the feminine mystique made her cringe but for some strange reason, Reegan felt more comfortable hanging out with her brother and his friends at his all-boys school than practicing rooting for the football team with her fellow cheerleaders.

The question, then, was why Reegan was not only on the cheerleading team, but head cheerleader. Why she was dating the captain of the football team. Why she had been elected to the homecoming court and had gone to prom as a freshman and a sophomore. The easy answer was that she was popular. The actual answer was much more complicated. She needed to fit in. She needed to be popular. She needed to hide. It was so much easier to hide in plain sight than it was to avoid the spotlight. After all, that's what happened to her brother. He tried to be himself and got punished for it. Reegan constantly tried to figure out who was the luckier of the two and almost always chose her brother as the victor.

And so, here Reegan was, at the so-called "big" football game, watching her school's boys lose to the one team who, until that night, had yet to actually win a game that season with the unforeseen strategy of dancing to Beyonce. Her eyes were glued to the slight kicker as he shimmied away his team's losing streak. She watched his teammates hoist him on their shoulders as he produced a princess wave to all of his adoring fans. Reegan couldn't stop the tears beginning to well up in her eyes. She would later tell her teammates that she was upset that their boys lost but she was well aware of the real reason of her sadness. She envied that boy. He was allowed to be himself and his school celebrated because of it. Reegan would have done anything to have switched places with him. Anything.

XXXXXX

More than a week later, Reegan woke up in a hospital bed with a plastic tube down her throat and bandages encompassing her wrists. Without thinking, she yanked the tube out, coughing profusely and feeling like she was about to vomit.

"Reegan?" The girl looked around and saw her brother sitting in a comfy chair with a textbook in his lap. "What are you…nurse!" He rose quickly, allowing the book to fall to the ground.

"Goober," Reegan's voice was all but a croak. "What's going on?"

"Wait, I'll get the nurse."

"No, Blaine! Sit down and tell me what happened!"

Blaine sighed and plopped back down in the chair. "What's the last thing you remember?"

Reegan concentrated. She thought back to her last memory. She was at home cleaning. Wait, no, she was drinking and cleaning. Her parents were away and her brother was at rehearsal. She was supposed to be alone all night. And then she remembered –  
>"I broke a plate," she said quietly to herself.<p>

"What was that?"

Reegan looked up, looked into her brother's eyes, mirrors of her own, "I broke a plate. I was putting the dishes away and I dropped a plate and I cut my finger when I picked it up and then I thought…" she trailed off, deep in thought.

"Thought what?"

"How easy it would be just to…you know…" Reegan could barely get the words out, "end it. But how did I end up here?"

"Rehearsal was cancelled. I got home just in time, or at least that's what the paramedics said. The doctors said that even if you hadn't, you know, hurt yourself, you drank so much and…mom's Xanax? Really? Well, they said that if I'd gotten there later, you'd still be in this mess." Blaine pulled the chair closer to the bed. "Why, Prez?"

"Why what?"

"Why'd you do it?"

Reegan sighed, "You wouldn't understand. I hardly understand. I just know that I can't do this anymore and I just don't see how to get out."

"Do what? Get out of what? I mean look at you. I would kill to have your life. You strut around school like you're the cock of the walk. Guys fall over each other just to be near you. Mom and Dad probably wish I was more like you."

"That's funny. I would do anything to be more like you."

"What are you talking about?"

Reegan looked at her brother and sighed again. "Goober, what do you want me to say? It was bound to happen sooner or later. Was I planning it? Not consciously, no, but…something was building. I just couldn't…I couldn't be that girl anymore. I was so tired, so tired, _so tired_ of watching how I walked, how I spoke, how I reacted, so afraid that people would know I was living a lie. And what if they found out? What would happen to me? Where would I go? I wouldn't be able to stay there, subjected to their torment, disapproving eyes examining. We learned that the hard way, didn't we?"

Blaine shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

"Goober, do you have any idea how much I envy you? You were able to escape and you're, you're flourishing. Guys want to be you; girls want you to be straight. Man, it would be so much easier if I were gay. At least then I'd have an excuse for the way I am. I've tried, you know. I thought maybe I was in denial. But I'm not. And I used to think, I used to ask myself, why wasn't I born a boy? Boys make so much more sense than girls. I've always felt more comfortable being around you and being around Aaron and just being me, if that makes any sense. What I would give to be able to attend Dalton with you. It sounds like a nirvana compared to the complete chaos of feminine mystique I have to face at school every day.

"What am I, Goober? What am I? And it was all these thoughts going through my head last night and so I started drinking to make the thoughts go away but they wouldn't so I took Mom's sleeping pills but they just kept coming back and so when that plate dropped, I really did just mean to clean it up. I swear I did…"

"Reegan," Blaine tried taking his sister's hand before she quickly jerked it away.

"Don't, just don't. Goober, what's wrong with me? It would be so much easier if I were just gay. But no, I'm just…damn it! I don't know what I am. I'm obviously not a boy but I don't feel like a girl. I've never felt like a girl. These past few years I've felt like I was a boy going to school in drag. Does that make sense?"

A nurse entered the room before Blaine was able to formulate any semblance of an answer to his sister's pleadings. In many ways, Reegan was glad that her brother didn't have to voice his opinion. This was probably the first time she had ever admitted to her feelings of inadequacy and utter failings when it came to her gender. It wasn't that she didn't like being a girl. She just didn't like acting like one. She wasn't comfortable in the role that was created for her the moment her mother's obstetrician looked between her legs.

XXX

After she had been deemed "stable," Reegan was transferred to the psych ward of the hospital. At least she got a private room. The first few days, she was stuck speaking to shrinks about wanting to end her life and how long had she been depressed and had she ever tried medication. But Reegan didn't want to try medication. She didn't understand how a little pill would help her feel different. It wasn't until her third day in the ward that she finally spoke to somebody who appeared to understand her.

George wasn't a psychiatrist. He wasn't even a psychologist. He was still a grad student doing his clinical hours as painlessly as possible. And apparently, Reegan was an interesting case that would make for a good case presentation, or at least that's what she assumed. After all, she was a girl who tried killing herself because she was too popular.

"Hey, how you doing?" George asked as he entered the room. Reegan groaned and pulled her sheet over her head. "I'll take that as meaning not so good. Would you like to talk about it?"

"Do I look like I want to talk about it?" Reegan muttered from underneath her sheet. "How long's it gonna take before you guys realize I'm not a threat to myself anymore?"

George sighed, "I have no idea. I'm just here to talk. Reegan, when the doctors examined you originally, they found scars under your breasts. Tell me truthfully, were you cutting yourself on purpose to hurt yourself or for some other reason?"

"Some other reason?"

"Yes, you see, I've seen injuries like those before. And the doctors who work here, they think that you're self harming, but I have a different theory. You see, I've spoken to your brother…"

"Blaine?" Reegan pulled the sheet down.

"Yes," George took a seat in the chair next to her bed. "He told me some interesting things. He told me that you didn't want to be a girl?"

"Well, not literally."

"How so, then?"

Reegan took a deep breath and tried to explain her feelings. She told George about how she fought tooth and nail to wear pants when her mother would try to put a frilly dress on her. She never played house or with dolls and always stole her brother's trucks and cars while growing up. She kept her hair short. She played soccer and rugby and baseball and took up karate and tae kwon do and other martial arts. How she would play with the boys and never the girls. She always had more in common with her best friend Aaron than his sisters or any girls at school. Then she told George about the teasing when she entered junior high. She explained about how the other kids, the girls especially, would call her very hurtful things. They called her Reggie; they called her a carpet muncher, a lezzie, a dyke and a host of other names that brought tears to her eyes. And how she made a conscious choice at the end of 8th grade to change the way she looked and acted so she could fit in more.

"And the scars?" George asked after she finished her story.

Reegan looked into George's eyes for the first time since their meeting. "I tried to cut them off."

George nodded and leaned in to speak to Reegan more directly. "Reegan, have you ever heard of gender identity disorder?" Reegan shook her head. "Well, that's the medical term. It basically means that sometimes a person is born in the wrong body, in the wrong gender."

Reegan pulled back, "Transgendered? But I'm not gay."

"I never said you were. That's a stereotype. The truth is transgendered people are gay, straight and bisexual just like anybody else."

"But I don't think I'm a guy. I just…I'm more comfortable being like a guy, not being a guy. I don't want to be a guy."

"Reegan, gender can be fluid just like sexuality. Being transgendered doesn't mean that you're a hundred percent the opposite gender, it just means that you don't fit the gender you were assigned at birth. A lot of people take hormones, get surgery, etc. But not all do. Not all want to. Reegan, you can act and behave like a male but still be female underneath. It's completely your choice."

"But that doesn't make any sense."

George smiled, "Not many things in life do. Look, I wanted to ask you. I have a group, a therapy group for people who are or possibly could be transgendered. I think it would be good for you if you possibly came to a few sessions. It might help if you hear some people's stories. Plus, if you agree to attend, you can probably break free from this place a few days earlier, especially since you can't attend the group if you're an inpatient. Think about it, okay?"

Reegan did more than think about. She spoke at length about it with her brother. She stayed adamant that she wasn't a freak and they stayed adamant that she wasn't a freak either.

"Am I a freak?" Blaine asked.

"No," Reegan smiled, "but you're also not being told that you were born the wrong gender."

"Prez, when was the last time you were happy? I mean truly happy? I haven't seen you smile since we were in middle school. Besides, you might not be transgendered. He just asked that you come to the group, not come out."

"But what if I am? What does that make me? A gay man? What guy's going to want me, a guy stuck in a girl's body? I don't get it."

Blaine took his sister's hand, "I know of one guy who doesn't care."

"What are you talking about?"

"Aaron."

"Aaron? As in my best friend Aaron? As in the boy next door Aaron? As in my sparring partner Aaron?" Reegan scoffed in disbelief.

"Yes, Aaron. Haven't you noticed he's visited you every single day after school? And he's the only person who has? He did damage control making sure nobody knew the truth about your accident. Hell, he was the first person I called when I found you on the floor…after 911 of course. He didn't leave your side until his parents dragged him away and I promised I'd give him hourly updates. Prez, you are so oblivious. He has been in love with you since you guys were eight years old. How could you not have realized this?"

"Because he's Aaron."

Blaine hugged his sister," You know what else? You're in love with him too." Reegan swatted him in disbelief. "Reegan, you're happy when you're with him. You're yourself. I think you should take up this guy's offer and when you get home you can figure out for yourself how perfect you and Aaron are for each other, regardless if you're a boy or a girl."

"That just sounds ridiculous," but it got Reegan thinking. She had never really thought about Aaron in that way. She never really had to. How was she to know that he had any sorts of feelings for her? He never mentioned anything and he never flirted with her, not the way the guys on the football team did. He also never seemed jealous when she was dating some random guy. Of course, she tended to see less of him during those times but that's because she was with said random guy. Plus, it wasn't like Aaron was around often when he was dating somebody, which, now that Reegan thought about it, wasn't that often. When was the last time that Aaron had had a girlfriend? Reegan couldn't remember.  
>How did this happen? Reegan was supposed to be deciding whether or not to join a therapy group for transgendered youth and now she was thinking not-so-innocent thoughts about her best friend. Stupid Goober, getting her priorities all out of whack.<p>

XXX

Eventually, Reegan opted for the outpatient therapy and group sessions. She just couldn't think inside the hospital and figured that everything would make more sense once she got home. She had to stay in the hospital one more week, due to the fact that it took that long for the doctors to convince her that starting Zoloft was a good idea. Reegan kept trying to explain that she wasn't suicidal and anti-depressants were part of the reason she was in the hospital in the first place but in the end she acquiesced.  
>It also took that long for Reegan to convince her parents to let her take time off from school. She had already missed several weeks due to being in the hospital, plus she would be missing a lot more due to the <em>intensive<em>therapy she'd be receiving. Also, she was afraid to go back to school. She didn't want to be that perfect cheerleader anymore and she was afraid of what would happen if she came back in the middle of her identity crisis. She wasn't an idiot. She remembered what happened to her brother the year before. She was the one who found him that time and his only crime was being gay. No, going to school would be another suicide attempt. Transferring was also out of the question. Crawford Country Day was the antithesis of what she needed and while she was more comfortable in the masculine world, for all intents and purposes Reegan was still female which meant that Dalton was out of the question. And so, through great compromise, Reegan got a tutor.

"What the hell is this?" Reegan had been home less than five minutes before she noticed some major décor changes. "What happened to my door?"

A large navy blue curtain was hanging where the door to Reegan's bedroom had been. Reegan looked at her brother in disbelief.

"Yeah, Mom and Dad got a little worried that you might try to hurt yourself again," Blaine explained. "So they kind of suicide proofed the house."

"Suicide proofed?"

"Yeah, you'll notice none of your shoes have laces, your belts have all disappeared, and they added biometrics to the kitchen. You can't get in without their or my thumbprint. Oh, and they bought you an electric razor."

"They're insane." Blaine shrugged in agreement. "And where are they? You'd think they'd be here when I got home. I mean they signed me out of the hospital."

Instead of answering the question, Blaine helped Reegan carry her bag into her room. The pair hadn't even started to unpack when they heard a knock.

"Hey, what happened to your door?" Reegan recognized Aaron's voice immediately.

"You know, I think I have some homework to do," Blaine said as he inched towards the hallway. "If you need me I'll be in my room. Aaron, nice to see you again. Bye."

Reegan stood awkwardly looking at her best friend, finding herself at a loss for words. She studied him closely. She admitted to herself he was attractive. He had a surfer boy's good looks, ironic for someone who had never left Ohio, with almond colored eyes and dusty blonde hair. His figure was tall and lean, as was hers, a product of all the martial arts training the two had done together. And for some strange reason, even if the dead of the Ohio winter, his face always looked sun-kissed. Her brother's words from a week before echoed in her mind.

_He's in love with you. You're in love with him too. _It was absurd.

This was Aaron, her best friend. He was a practical non-entity. Well, he was always around but that was just it. He was just around. Reegan always knew that he was around and she couldn't imagine what her life would be like if he disappeared…Oh. Crap. Stupid Goober.

"I want to thank you," Reegan finally found her words, "for everything. For visiting me. For helping Blaine out. For bringing home my assignments." She sat down on her bed and motioned for Aaron to come in. He sat at her desk chair.

"Blaine said you weren't coming back to school," Aaron said with disappointment in his voice. "You know, they don't know. They think a mirror fell on you."

"Yeah, thanks for that. It's just that I've been going through a lot of crap. And I missed a lot of school and I just don't think that I can go back there. Aaron, I think I might be…"

"Gay?" Aaron interrupted, trepidation in his voice. "I mean I've heard it runs in families."

Reegan laughed, "No, not gay. At least not exactly. This is going to sound crazy but, I think I might be transgendered." She went on to explain everything that she and Blaine and George the social worker had spoken about. She talked about being uncomfortable in her own skin, feeling like she was in constant hiding in school, hating the way she looked in the mirror, not being able to relate with girls at all. "But I'm not a lesbian. I've never been attracted to girls, not the way Blaine's attracted to boys. I think I might just be a tomboy. I don't know. I have to go to this group and supposedly that'll help me figure out what I am. It's silly, trying to kill yourself over not wanting to be a cheerleader. Do I disgust you?"  
>Aaron wheeled the chair over to the bed and took Reegan's hands in his, "You could never disgust me. You're my best friend and you're perfect the way you are, whatever way you choose to be."<p>

Reegan didn't know who made the first move. One moment she was looking at her best friend and the next she was kissing him. It felt, for lack of a better word, right. She pulled back after a few seconds and fell into Aaron's arms.

"Why didn't you tell me?" she whispered into his shoulders.

"Well, you were always dating someone on the football team or on student council or…"

Reegan smiled and looked at the boy who she would always consider her first love, "They asked me out, silly. You never did."


	2. Chapter 2

"Are you sure about this?" Reegan, or rather Reggie as she now preferred to be called, was walking to her car with her brother. "You have sectionals coming up and tech week starts literally the day after."

"Come on, it's gonna be fun!" Blaine exclaimed as he got in the passenger seat. "The theatre club only decided to put up this show when they saw us."

"Yeah us," Reggie sighed. "The queer and the freak." A lot had happened in the past year. Reggie had officially come out as something. She still didn't consider herself male but she had admitted that she was definitely not completely female. After being in the transgendered group for several months, she had decided on the term genderqueer. It suited her. She was very conscious of her scars and opted to wear either long sleeves or wrist cuffs to hide her shame. She kept her hair relatively short and wore her brother's clothes, until he took her shopping for her own. She tossed out all her skirts and tops and shoes and just started being comfortable. She even stopped shaving. It meant more deodorant but she felt free. Reggie was still undecided on how far she wanted her transformation to go but for the first time in her life, she was comfortable with who she was. What amazed her most was that her parents fully supported this change, well when they were around to support her anyway. Reggie had a theory that they wouldn't be nearly as ecstatic if she hadn't told them she and Aaron were dating during the same conversation. The only thing that spooked Reggie, really, was that once she took her appearance as far as she was ready, she was the spitting image of her brother. And this was why they had been cast as the twins Viola and Sebastian in Dalton's production of Twelfth Night.

"Prez, you love to act. Come on, it'll be nice us hanging out together, without Aaron. It'll get you out of the house more often. And you can even help me with my calculus homework."

"Hey, I get out of the house," Reggie revved the engine. "What do you call picking you up from school every day?"

"House chore until I get my own car."

Reggie swatted her brother. "I do more than that, you know. I have my weekly genderqueer meeting, my biweekly therapy sessions, classes at the JC three days a week, rugby, martial arts classes both teaching and taking and band rehearsal, not to mention spending time with my boyfriend. And don't forget when the rep's season starts again. I think they're going to go with my suggestion of Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson."

"And are you planning on playing Andrew Jackson?" Blaine joked.

"Hey, I might be a man on the inside but I'm not that ready to break gender norms. I still like playing girl roles." Reggie smiled.

Reggie enjoyed taking her brother to and from school. It did, after all, give her a reason to get out of the house as well as time to catch up with her brother on the latest of gossip at his all boys' school. Only, Blaine was strangely quiet on this day, which meant only one thing, "So what's his name?"

"Who's name?" Blaine asked innocently.

Reggie dared to take her eyes off the road and give her brother the menacing hairy eyeball, "Don't give me that, Goober. You only get quiet when you're imagining somebody naked."

"Shh," his face flushed bright red.

"Who are you shushing? We're the only two people in the car. Do you have any idea how boring it is to no longer be in high school? I try to live vicariously through Aaron but I could give a rat's ass to the assholes at that place. And my classmates at the junior college are all so much older than me. I'm starved for gossip, Goober. And technically, I will be a Dalton student for a little over a month if I'm going to be Viola. Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope."

Blaine sighed and told Reggie about the strange boy who showed up from the rival glee club.

"And you had eye sex with him, didn't you?"

"What? No, he seems like a sweet kid, just a little lonely."

"I know you, Blaine Anderson," Reggie used her mocking voice. "You don't know how not to flirt, especially when you sing. You had eye sex with him because you fell madly in love with him the second you saw him on the stairwell and wanted him to fall madly in love with you. And now you want to adopt a hundred of his babies because that's what you do."

"When's Aaron coming back from his college tour?" Blaine asked innocently.

Reggie groaned, "Not soon enough."

XXX

Reggie was on her way home from group when she received a text marked urgent. Need you to pick me up NOW! Wow, Blaine almost never used caps andthree exclamation points. This must have been an emergency. Blaine was already waiting outside when Reggie pulled up to the curb. He had a bag in his hands.

"Here," he said, handing her the bag, "Put these on."

"A Dalton uniform? Goober "

"I need us to switch places for the afternoon. And I need to borrow your car."

"Okay, I realize we do look alike but my eyebrows and there's no way I can get my hair to "

"Just, here, let me," Blaine pushed her eyebrows up. "And as for your hair, run it under the tap in the locker room. There's some gel in my locker, number forty-two, same combo as ever. Please? I have this friend and he needs some help and I told him I'd be there for him and I "

"It's the boy isn't?" Reggie interrupted. "Kurt?" Blaine nodded. "You owe me big time for this. Get out of here."

Blaine kissed his sister on the forehead, texted her a list of his classes and room assignments, assured her he'd be back before she had to get to her class and hopped in the car. Reggie muttered curse words under her breath as she watched him tear out of the parking lot. If anything, this would be an exercise in seeing how well she could pass as a guy, even if it was her brother.

The afternoon passed rather quickly. Despite the fact that she stayed in the back of the class and said relatively little during the day, Reggie enjoyed being in classes with people her own age again. This was also the first time she had tried to fully pass as a boy. It felt liberating. She was also amazed that nobody caught on that she wasn't her brother. Did they really look that much alike? Reggie didn't think her features were that masculine. She had a softer jaw than Blaine and her eyebrows weren't as bushy. Maybe it was because she was keeping her head down that nobody noticed. Or maybe, based on the winks that she received by several of the guys Reggie recognized from Blaine's glee club, they were quite aware of who she was and thought the Anderson siblings were playing an elaborate practical joke.

Reggie sat on a bench outside the school waiting for her brother. As much as she enjoyed her little adventure in normalcy, she was more than ready to switch back to her more confusing life. The familiar sound of her VW's engine broke her from her reverie.

"If you ever make me do that again," Blaine had barely opened the door before she laid into him, "I will tell mom and dad where you keep your muscle mags. Is everything alright?"

Blaine shrugged, "I guess so. That kid has a lot of crap to deal with, more than I ever did although maybe not as much as you."

Reggie smiled, "Well it's good that he has you. Did you fill up the tank?"

XXX

As the days passed, Reggie noticed she saw less and less of her brother as he became closer and closer with his new friend. It's not that she was jealous. Actually, she was quite excited that her brother found somebody, even if he refused to admit he had any type of romantic feelings for this kid. Also, she enjoyed spending time with Aaron without Blaine feeling like the perennial third wheel. The only thing that annoyed her was that she hadn't met Kurt yet.

And so she was surprised one Saturday as she and Aaron were hanging around in the living room playing video games when Blaine stumbled down the stairs, obviously having just woken up.

"Dude," Aaron exclaimed, noticing the same, "aren't you usually out of the house by now? Or is your boyfriend finally visiting?"

Blaine rubbed his eyes and stared down his sister, "Prez, what have you been telling him?"

"Oh, nothing," Reggie smiled. "Just the truth. That you've met the perfect guy and you're completely blind to the fact that he's perfect for you."

"You haven't even met him yet."

"No, but you talk about him all the time and you haven't gushed over a guy since we had that simultaneous crush on Zac Efron."

"Zac Efron? Really, Reggie?" Aaron interjected.

"What? I might be genderqueer but I still have hormones," Reggie swatted her boyfriend teasingly. "Besides, if I didn't, I wouldn't want to do this." She pulled Aaron into the kiss.

"Ew, you guys, gross," Blaine pretended to cover his eyes. Reggie threw a pillow at him.

"What, you've never seen a guy make out with his genderqueer transman girlfriend before?" Aaron asked. "If you didn't want to watch us making out, you should never have told Reggie how head over heels I was for her."

"I would have figured it out eventually."

"No, you wouldn't have."

"I totally would have " Aaron stopped Reggie's retort with a kiss. "Are you always going to end our arguments that way?"

Aaron smiled, "Best way to end them." He turned to Blaine. "Sorry, I like making you squirm. But why aren't you out with your friend? I never see you anymore. I keep thinking I'll forget what you look like and then I remember you and Reggie are clones."

Blaine shrugged, "Kurt's dad's getting married."

"And you weren't invited?" Reggie feigned shock.

Blaine shrugged again, "I've known him for like a month. Why would he invite me to his parents' wedding? Besides, we're going to hang out on Monday after rehearsal."  
>Reggie moved over on the couch and patted the seat next to her. Blaine accepted the invitation and took his turn playing Star Wars. This was what Saturdays were all about, as far as Reggie was concerned, hanging out with her boyfriend and her brother without any worries at all.<p>

"Hey, where are your parents this weekend?" Aaron asked.

"Chicago, I think," Blaine said. "I can never keep it straight. Hey, I'm hungry. Pizza?"

"Only if you're buying."

"Aaron!"

"What?"

"He's my little brother. Only I can take advantage of him like that. Goober, you're buying, right?"

Blaine sighed, "Only because you paid last time. Aaron, you gonna order?" Aaron was already off of the couch and on the house phone. "Nevermind."

Reggie patted her brother on the back, "You wish your friend was here, don't you?" Blaine nodded. "Well Monday is only two days away. I'm sorry you're stuck with us. But dude, little brother, I've missed you. New rule. You can only hang out with another guy if you're dating him."

"Reegan!"

"What? I'm selfish. I don't want to share my brother unless he's getting some."

Blaine dropped the game controller and attacked his sister the only way he knew how. She may have been a black belt in three different martial arts but Blaine knew her kryptonite. Within moments, she was begging for mercy from the tickle monster.

"You may be a guy now, but you'll always be a girl when it comes to tickling," Blaine laughed. "And you know, I'd be very happy to see less of you if it meant seeing less of you making out with Aaron."

By the time Aaron had returned, the siblings were on the floor rolling with laughter. They might have been a year apart, but even the most identical of twins were not as close as Reggie and Blaine were.

XXX

"Alas, poor Yorick, I knew him, Horatio "

"Wrong play."

"What, you don't think I can handle Hamlet? What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason. How infinite in "

"Stop!" Blaine laughed as his sister recited one of the many soliloquies she had memorized during her time away from school. "I get it. You're good. We should be rehearsing."  
>Reggie sighed as she waited at a red light before turning into the school's parking lot. "You do realize we have like one scene together, right? The rest is either you or me. We can't rehearse you or me. What's the point of being in this thing together when we're hardly on stage together? We should add some kind of French farcical shtick to it where we're on stage but keep missing each other and everyone thinks they're still talking to the same person. Ooh, maybe a mirror bit. That would be awesome."<p>

"Reggie, you need to get a life."

"What type of life would you suggest?" The light had finally changed. "I have a boyfriend. I have rugby. I teach judo and karate. I'm in a theatre rep. I have therapy and group counseling way too often. I take college level courses and might even take the GED. And I drive you to school every day. Hey, who is that?" Reggie noticed a kid she hadn't seen before sitting on the bench outside looking around nervously.

"Oh, that's Kurt."

"He goes here now?" Reggie asked incredulously. "What are you not telling me? And do I finally get to meet him?"

Blaine looked at his watch, "Well, look at the time. I'll see you at rehearsal." And with that he hopped out of the car. 


	3. Chapter 3

The curiosity was becoming unbearable. Why wouldn't Blaine let Reggie meet his new friend? What was Blaine hiding? It would take two seconds to just get a handshake. That's all. Reggie couldn t understand all the subterfuge Blaine was doing keeping her away from Kurt.

Was he embarrassed by her or afraid of what the boy might think? The thought did cross her mind. She made an active choice to avoid unknown situations for fear of bigotry but why would Blaine have any reason to believe a fellow member of the alternate lifestyles club would have any issues with her at all. And it s not like he would have to explain anything. Well, he would eventually but a simple it s complicated seemed to suffice when a more in depth explanation was expected.

And Reggie was positive that Blaine was purposely keeping them apart. She was at Dalton all the time either dropping him off or picking him up or at play practice. Based on how much her brother talked about Kurt, they sounded all but joined at the hip. There was absolutely no reason for her not to have met him yet.

"Why don t you just ambush him at Warbler practice?" Reggie had been complaining to Aaron for the past hour while the two were practicing karate moves for their upcoming belt tests. Blaine can t hide his boyfriend in there. They're both members."

Reggie shook her head, "No, I couldn't do that to him. Those guys respect him too much. And they respect me. They'd totally know I was doing it on purpose to meet Kurt and then the rumor mills would get started and all of a sudden they're running away to Canada to get married."

"Blaine was right. You do need to get out of the house more."

Reggie gave a roundhouse kick to her boyfriend's side, "Be careful or you'll be getting out of this house more without me."

Aaron held up his hands in mock protest, "Seriously, though, you'll meet him at sectionals. Once again, they re both performing and you re going to be the good sister and support them. And even if you didn't meet him face-to-face there, you'll at least see what he looks like up close, you know, without Blaine ushering him away before you get a good look from your car window."

Reggie thought for a moment, "True. Plus, there is the play. There's flyers up all over that damn school. And I'm sure Blaine will invite Kurt to see it. I could meet him then. You are such a good boyfriend, what would I do without you?"

In lieu of a response, Aaron picked Reggie up in a bear hug and blew a raspberry on her cheek. "Probably gain some maturity," he finally said.

XXX

With no ulterior motive except for finally meeting her brother s new bosom buddy, Reggie drove Blaine to sectionals. She was not going to let him out of her sight until it was time for her to take her seat in the audience. Uncertainty was not a welcome visitor in her mind and so before they were even near the theatre, Reggie made her concerns known.

"Are you embarrassed by me?"

"What?" Reggie's question took Blaine completely off-guard. "Of course not, no."

"Then why have you been keeping me from meeting Kurt? You have yet to bring him to the house but you've met his friends and his brother and he knows all your friends except for me. Why don t you want me to meet him? Is it because of what I am? Is it because you think I m a freak?"

Blaine looked at his sister, "Why would you think that?"

Reggie took her eyes off the road to quickly look her brother in the eye, "Because, Blaine. I am a freak. I feel like a freak. I mean, I felt more like a freak before, afraid that people would catch on to my secret, but these days, being so out in the open, well, there's a difference between thinking everybody's looking at you and knowing everybody's looking at you."

"Prez," Blaine put his hand on his sister's thigh and squeezed lightly, "you're no more of a freak than I am. You know that."

"Then why haven't I met your friend yet?"

Blaine took a deep breath, "It's like this. You're my sister. I don t care about that other crap. I remember the taunting just as much as you do. And I never second-guessed when you went through your girly phase."

"It wasn't a phase, it was deep cover."

"Deep cover, yeah, whatever. What I m saying is, I was there when it happened. I remember all the shit you went through, that you re still going through. Well, Kurt s going through it too. He's one of us, Prez, and it s a lot to deal with. His father was sick, he was being more than harassed at school and then he was forced to leave school out of fear. You and I, we weren't forced out of the school. We left of our own accord. And even so, we had each other, we ve always had each other, to get through our rough patches. He has nobody."

"He has you."

"Right, he has me. But I don't want to hit him over the head with all things me. He has enough to deal with, I don't want to drag him into our problems. He doesn't need to worry about it."

"But, Goober, you just said it. We have each other. I know what you're going through and I know what he's going through. Isn't that what he needs? Another sympathetic shoulder to cry on? Or are you afraid I'm going to scare him away?"

"Oh, sis, I m afraid that I m going to scare him away. He thinks he thinks I'm like him."

"Which you are."

"No. I mean he thinks I had no support system either. I mean I've told him about you. I've told him I have a sister but I haven't told him how close we are, how much we have in common."

"Isn t that tantamount to lying then? To know me is to know you. He can't know who you are without knowing who I am. And he doesn't need to know everything. That's my cross to bear. I don't go around screaming I'm a transsexual! at the top of my lungs, do I?"

"Well, there was that one time"

"That was different and we've moved on. What I mean is I don't say, Hello, nice to meet you. I'm Reggie and I'm a transsexual. What about you?"

"True."

"So next time he s around, don't usher me away, okay? That's all I m asking."

Blaine nodded in agreement. They pulled into the parking lot with a massive weight having been lifted off both of their shoulders.

XXX

Reggie didn t have to wait very long before she finally met Kurt. She was talking to her brother when she heard what sounded like the Big Bad Wolf trying to huff and puff and blow down one of the houses of the three little piggies slowly approaching her from behind.

"Kurt!" Blaine exclaimed with elation on his face. "I want you to meet my sister. This is Reegan."

"Reegan?" the voice behind her was a lot more of a high pitch than she expected. It reminded her of someone she had seen only briefly and had heard even less briefly a little more than a year before. Reggie slowly turned around and holy crap! It was him. It was the boy from the football game. The one that made her second guess everything that was in her life at the time. She wondered why Blaine never mentioned it was the same kid. He was at the game too. Maybe he didn't remember. She had been, after all, much closer to the action and saw him up close. Blaine had probably only seen him with the helmet on.

"You can call me Reggie," she extended her hand, a smile hopefully hiding any and all shock on her face. "Only Blaine calls me Reegan. Well, Blaine and our parents. I've heard so much about you. It's nice to finally meet."

The boy took her hand silently, no sound escaping his mouth as he looked at the strange duck that stood before him. Why had she begged Blaine to introduce them? At that moment, she felt like a complete tool.

She hoped the boy couldn't see the awkwardness she felt on the inside. She thought meeting her brother's possible future beau would be easy. It turned out, it was just as hard as meeting any stranger on the street, if not harder. She was still getting accustomed to the looks of confusion as strangers eyed her over, trying to decipher whether to call her sir or ma'am. Reggie was well aware that this time was different. Kurt had originally looked at her with jealousy. Apparently he originally thought she was competition. In any case, he was not what she'd expected at all and she was more than positive the feeling was mutual.

First of all, the kid was tall, like really tall. He must have shot up at least six inches since the last time she saw him. And he held himself with such dignity and composure, nothing like the wilting wildflower Blaine had led her to believe he was. And while he had delicate features, there was nothing inherently feminine about them at all. If anything, he was the type of male she strived to be. Reggie thought about the first time she had seen him. He was different now but still the same. It was no wonder Blaine liked him so much. He was everything they weren't and could never be.

"Blaine told me he had a sister but..." Kurt finally was able to stammer.

"He didn't tell you I looked like this, did he?" Reggie nodded in understanding. "Don't worry. It's not something we go around bragging about unless absolutely necessary."

Just then her phone started ringing, breaking the tension. Reggie looked at her caller ID and smiled.

"Aaron?" Blaine asked.

Reggie smiled again, "Probably just calling for directions."

"Go on and take it." I'll see you inside.

Reggie was almost out of earshot when she heard Kurt blurt out, "You didn't me she was gay!"

That was a conversation for another day. Reggie pressed the talk button and after she explained to her boyfriend that he was only five minutes away and he had simply taken the wrong fork in the road, she told him all about finally meeting the elusive Kurt Hummell.


	4. Chapter 4

"I am _so _sorry," Kurt said to Reggie after she went backstage to congratulate her brother.

"What for?"

"For assuming that you were gay and that Aaron was a girl," he explained.

"Oh, I can guarantee you, I am most definitely not a girl," the voice behind Reggie made her smile.

"Kurt, this is my boyfriend, my best friend, Aaron," she introduced the two teens to each other. "Aaron, this is the infamous Kurt we've heard tell about."

"Uh, hi," Kurt's voice was barely a squeak. "I can honestly say you are not at all what I expected."

Reggie looked at him quizzically, "What were you expecting exactly?" The question was a reflex. In truth, she didn't want to know what he was expecting. He didn't want to know what Blaine had said about her.

Luckily for them both, Blaine showed up at that moment, saving Kurt from giving an answer and Reggie having to hear one, whether it be honest or not. Reggie said it herself when they first met, Blaine never told Kurt she looked…like a lesbian. And that just seemed so crass a term. What exactly did a lesbian look like anyway? But did Blaine tell him anything? Did he say she was a tomboy? Did he say she used to be a cheerleader? Based on the initial look he gave her, she had a feeling all he said was that he had a sister, which was pretty darn insulting, if one were to ask Reggie. Here, she'd been hearing for weeks about this amazing boy and she finally gets to meet him and…he didn't even know that they looked alike.

And yes, Blaine did say that he never elaborated on their relationship, but did her name never come up in conversation? They were performing in a freaking show together in only two weeks! But Reggie was able to catch herself and not hate her brother full-stop. Kurt was the shiny new toy. Of course he'd get possessive and of course she'd get neglected. It's what she'd been complaining about for some time. She would just have to kick his butt in a game of horse later on.

"Hey guys," Blaine said as he walked up, patting Kurt on the back. "What are you guys talking about?"

"Oh, just the fact that I'm not a lesbian," Reggie said in her biting manner.

"And that I'm not a girl," Aaron added.

"Right," Blaine put his hands in pockets and looked down at the floor, as he always did when he appeared to get caught with his hand in the proverbial cookie jar. "Well, I did tell him that."

"Yes, after he met me," Reggie added.

"Ahem, I'm right here," Kurt interjected.

Aaron took him aside, "Don't even bother. They do this to me all the time. It's what happens when they go into twin mode."

"I thought Reegan was older."

"She is. Doesn't mean they can't still have a twin mode. Wait till you've hung around the two of them for awhile. You'll understand what I mean."

"We can hear you, you know!" the Andersons said in duplicate.

"See what I mean?" Aaron laughed. "You get used to it, though. Blaine, Kurt, you guys killed it. I thought you had it in the bag by a mile but a tie is still awesome. Reg, hon, I'm going to get the car."

As Aaron ducked out, Kurt also took his cue to congratulate his friends the New Directions glee club. What a silly name for a glee club, New Directions. Like that has anything to do with singing.

"I beg of you," Reggie said as she handed her keys over to her baby brother, "return it in one piece. This may be the only time I let you borrow the car when we're in the same zip code."

"I promise," Blaine stuffed the keys into his pocket. "And I'll be home at a reasonable hour, you know, just in case Mom and Dad ask…So?"

"So what?" Reggie asked innocently.

"So what did you think?"

"Of what?"

"Stop playing dumb, Wise Ass," Blaine was getting impatient. "So what did you think of Kurt?"

"Goober," Reggie put her hand on Blaine's shoulder, "I love our Will and Grace moments, but seriously you don't need my approval to be friends with him. Obviously, you haven't had an issue before this."

"Reegan!"

"I met him for like five minutes, you gotta give me more time than that."

"But first impressions?"

Reegan thought a moment, "I like him…I like him a lot. And you're totally wrong about him."

Blaine was incredulous. "How so?"

"You said he was fragile. You said he was delicate." Reggie gestured to where Kurt was doing what she could only assume was his impression of a canary in a coal mine, "Do you not see him interacting with his friends? There's nothing delicate about that child."

Kurt took that precise moment to look over, smile and wave at the pair. Blaine ran his hands over hair, "He's just letting some tension out. He's just getting out of a very bad situation right now."

"So were we once," Reggie sighed. "That boy you see in front of you; that's not the same boy you'll see a month from now. I can guarantee you that. He's a changeling, a caterpillar starting his chrysalis. Honestly, I'm kind of excited, if you ask me, to see what happens…also," Reggie kissed his brother on the cheek as she walked towards the exit, "he's in love with you."

"Wait…what?"

XXX

Reggie was watching Saturday Night Live when she finally heard Blaine pulling up. _It's about damn time_, she thought to herself as she listened to him unlock the front door and go to the kitchen, the kitchen that she was still forbidden to enter without an escort. She got off the couch and followed him inside.

"I thought you said you wouldn't be home late," she started.

Blaine looked up from the refrigerator where he was scrounging around for random deli meats.

"It's not late," he said as he grabbed the salami and jar of mustard.

Reggie threw the bread at him, "It's after midnight. Mom and Dad already went to bed. They said I could ground you."

"No they didn't. Are you going to help by getting me a knife or what?"

"I'm not allowed to play with knives, remember?" Reggie had no idea why she was acting snippy. Whenever she was hungry, she always just went to Aaron's house. At least his parents weren't nuts. "Or plates for that matter. I'm sorry, I just envy you for having a life sometimes."

"You could have a life too if you went back to school." Blaine had found the required utensils and went to work on making some glorious sandwiches.

"We've had this conversation already this week. Anyway, how was the party?"

Blaine handed his sister one of his creations, "Kind of boring. I guess if you've been to one Warbler party, you've been to them all. Kurt and I ended up going to a movie instead. Was that true, what you said?"

"What? That he's not fragile?" Reggie asked with her mouth full.

"No, about him being in love with me," Blaine went back to the fridge and grabbed a couple cans of soda before sitting down next to his sister.

"What do you think?"

Blaine sighed, "I don't know. I really don't want to believe you but I feel like I kind of have to."

"Goober, it's like I said before. I met him for five minutes so maybe I'm just seeing things that aren't there but when he saw us together, before he realized who I was, you should have seen the disappointment in his face. And then to watch his eyes light up whenever he looks at you. He might not be in love with you yet, but there's something there. And I'm not saying it'll stay there or if he's even aware of his feelings but you have to be careful because I know you and you're insanely charismatic. Why do you think you're the Warblers poster boy? And maybe he's latched onto you just because of the crap you've been through, but be careful because I know you care about him a lot dearly. And I know I kid around with the whole 'boyfriend' speak but if you're not ready to take that step, you might want to dial down your Blaine-centrity from an eleven to maybe an eight."

"He's been through a lot lately."

"You keep saying that. But he's in a safe space now. It's time to stop being the knight in shining armor and start being the friend, okay?"

Blaine nodded as he took the last bite of his sandwich, "Wanna run lines?"

The two Andersons sat on the couch running lines until they were both fast asleep, with matching mustard stains on their chins.


	5. Chapter 5

The next few weeks were more chaotic than Reggie was used to. Finals were coming up, as was her next belt test and with _Twelfth Night_ starting tech rehearsals, the girl was completely running out of steam. However, it was the good kind of running out of steam where every single project she was doing was a project she enjoyed. Still, if she wanted to be honest to herself, this was the first time in her life that she envied her brother's coffee addiction.

And due to this hectic schedule, for the first time since Kurt came on the scene, Reggie found herself at the Lima Bean with Blaine and his new best bud gearing up for another late night of tech. She found herself really enjoying Kurt's company. And she also thought it was hilarious that she was right about Kurt's feelings about her brother and how oblivious Blaine was to them. They were blatantly flirting with each other, how could Blaine not realize that? But then she thought back to her own stalled start to a relationship with Aaron and just decided to enjoy the show. Although, she'd have to probably have to warn Kurt about the fact that her brother was a slow starter.

"So the whole idea of putting on _Twelfth Night_…" Kurt brought Reggie out of her revelry.

"Was all because Reegan was early picking me up," Ah, Blaine was retelling the story of how the drama club chose a play with identical opposite sex brothers based solely on their uncanny identical appearances.

"And this didn't bother you at all?" Oh, Kurt was asking her a question now.

"No, why should it? I like acting. It gives me a chance to be someone new. Besides Viola is so much what my life is like these days, I barely consider it acting. Do you know how many times people confuse the two of us? And then I speak and all that confusion disappears."

"You're coming right?" Blaine asked, bringing the conversation back to the show. "To _Twelfth Night_?"

Kurt smiled, "I wouldn't miss it."

"Bring your friends too," Reggie added. "The more the merrier. We need to put some non-Dalton butts in the seats."

Kurt looked at Reggie, "Aren't your friends from school coming?"

Reegan looked down, caught off guard by the question. Before she opened a mouth, Blaine was already answering for her.

"Reegan doesn't go to school."

"I…what…thanks, Goober, I can speak for myself," Reggie gave her brother what she liked to call her death glares, letting him know he was on warning.

"Prez…"

"Kurt," Reggie didn't let Blaine finish what he was going to say, "last year I had some…medical issues that forced me to take a leave of absence for about half of the school year, which kind of left me with a bunch of incompletes. I'm making them up right now with classes at the junior college but I'm officially a year behind in school. As such, I'm probably going to take the GED instead of going back. It's a choice." She glared at her brother a second time.

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"Don't be. It's not something I like to brag about. But in answer to your original question, I do have friends coming, just not school friends. Well, aside from Aaron…and his family."

XXX

"Medical issues? Really?" They hadn't been in the car more than five minutes when Blaine tore into her about what she had said about her problems. Reggie looked at him, the death glare still not erased from her face.

"It's true," she said. "I was officially excused due to a medical condition."

"Prez, it's not the truth."

"Goober," Reggie softened her tone, "Have you even told Kurt about the bashing incident?" Reggie didn't have to look over to know that Blaine was squirming in his seat. "I didn't think so."

"It's not the same thing."

"You're right. It's not the same thing. It's worse. It's also not something you bring up over coffee. 'How are you enjoying your non-fat mocha? Oh, by the way, I dropped out of school 'cause I tried to kill myself 'cause I'm actually genderqueer and didn't want to go as such back to the school that chased my brother out for being gay.' Great conversation ender.  
>"Why is this so important to you? No, really, why? Is it because you want him to know there are people in this world that are more fucked up than he is? Do you want him to feel sorry for me or less sorry for himself?" Reggie was beginning to get worked up. "It's not his place to my life."<p>

"No, no, of course not," Blaine tried to defend his opinion. "I mean yes, it would good for him to know that there are other people struggling with the same kind of issues that he is."

"But I don't have the same kind of issues he has, Blaine. I'm not gay, well not exactly anyway. There isn't a word for what I am. And a lot of people don't understand that, straight or gay. And it's not something you dump on a person when you meet him for the first, or third, time. It's something you tell them when the time is right and, brother, the time is definitely not right."

They drove in silence for the rest of the trip. When they reached the Dalton parking lot, Blaine put his hand on her thing and squeezed, "You should tell him."

"Why? Because he's your friend? I'll tell him when I know him better and he's more than just your friend."

"Prez, I told you we're not like –"

"I meant when he's my friend too. Get your mind out of the gutter, little brother."

"Oh," Reggie didn't have to look over to know her brother was turning bright red.

"I'll tell him the whole truth when it's necessary to the plot. Until then, you know how much I enjoy being a question mark."

XXX

Reggie loved performing. Even before her unfortunate accident, she loved being able to go onstage and pretend to be somebody else for however short a while. It was an escape, a way to get away from her problems and her hang up even if only for a little while. It was also a way to not have to worry about people accepting her because as far as they were concerned, she was whatever character she wanted them to think she was. She could be a sultry nightclub singer, she could be a rebellious nun, she could be a biker chick and the audience would believe her. Reggie loved all of that.

And she had an especially soft spot for Shakespeare. Good ol' Willie loved playing with gender norms. He had his actors, all men, play women who were pretending to be men. Or he had men pretend to be women pretending to be men. And maybe once or twice he had a man pretend to be a woman pretending to be a woman pretending to be a man. It was no surprise _Twelfth Night_ was one of her two favorite plays. It was also no surprise that she was the perfect choice for Viola, with or without an almost identical brother to play Sebastian. The few hours she got to spend at Dalton every day was currently her favorite time of the day. She'd be sad when the show ended and not just because it got rid of her excuse to be at an all-boys school. The next show she was in wasn't nearly as gender-bending as anything Willie could dream up. Plus, in her experience, most plays have the men cross-dressing and rarely the women. _Stupid double standards_, she thought to herself as she was trying on her costume.

"What are those?" came an all too familiar voice way too close to her ear.

"Blaine, what are you…stop," her brother was poking at the two little tufts of hair that she had carefully glued above her eyebrows. She swatted him away. "You're gonna make them fall off."

"But what are they?"

"My fake eyebrows, aren't they great?" Reggie made little vogue-ing poses showing off what she believed to be an amazing transformation into her brother. "They look just like yours. I have sideburns too, see? Now, next time I have to pretend to be you, I'll be flawless. We should go home dressed like this. We'll totally freak out Mom and Dad."

Blaine tried to suppress a laugh, "Yeah, they'd love that."

Reggie looked into her bag of accessories, looking but not being able to find what she considered her most important piece of costumery, "Hey, did you get wrist cuffs?"

"Wrist cuffs?"

"Yeah, for you costume, so I can hide my…you know."

"No, I don't think so."

"Me neither," Reggie pouted, a look of worry spreading across her face. "Crap."

Blaine put his arms around her shoulders and gave her a hug, "It's fine. We'll go shopping tomorrow."

"I can't go out there without wrist cuffs, Blaine. And we're supposed to look identical."

Blaine eyes searched the room until he saw what he was looking for. He broke the hug and went over to a nearby chair, grabbing a long scrap of material, "It's okay. Look, we can cut this and do a quick one-two sew job and use it as make shift cuffs. Okay? Nobody will see your scars. And if anybody asks, we'll just say you have a tattoo that would make us very un-twinly."

Reggie went over to her brother, kissed him on the cheek and gave him a tight hug, "Thank you so much."

"Hey, I know it's a big deal. And I know I want you to come out to my friend, but I would never force you to tell strangers, you know that."

"I know. You're the best brother ever."

"And as the best brother ever, I brought a camera. Come, we gotta take pictures. It'll be awesome."

The two finished their makeshift wrist cuffs and went to town on their makeshift photo shoot before they were yelled at for being late to rehearsal. They were greeted by a collective gasp the moment they walked onstage. It was agreed by all that Reggie's fake eyebrows were the piece de resistance of the costume and would be the reason their production of _Twelfth Night_ would be the most successful production that the Dalton drama club had ever produced.


	6. Chapter 6

It was the last day of tech. Reggie was hanging out with Aaron in the hallway playing with his iPhone. Tech week had a very annoying habit of being insanely long and insanely boring. Aaron promised to hang out on the one condition that they work on homework, which they had finished half an hour earlier. Now they were just goofing off.

It was times like these that Reggie missed going to school. Not the doing homework part, but rather the hanging out in the hallway just goofing off part. She was a social creature and she had felt so caged being stuck with tutors at home and out of place with the students at the JC. Some of her classmates were more than twice her age. It intimidated her. This was one of the reasons she had so many activities. She felt that if she kept herself active as much as possible, she'd forget how lonely she felt most of the time.

"It's your turn."

"Hmm?" Reggie had completely forgotten what she was doing.

"I spelled parsnip. Triple word score. It's your turn," Aaron was holding the iPhone out for her to take. Reggie couldn't help the blush rise up to her cheeks. "Did you get lost again?"  
>Aaron was the only one who knew about Reggie's frequent daydreaming. She was usually pretty good at staying focused and even when she forgot, the Anderson charm allowed her to bluff pretty well as far as knowing what was going on. Aaron called it 'getting lost' which Reggie thought was a little out of sorts since she was always able to find her way back.<p>

"Just thinking," she finally said.

"About what?"

"About how nice this is, about how I wish we could stay like this for always."

"We can, you know."

"But that defeats the purpose."

"The purpose of what?"

"A moment. A perfect moment."

Aaron laughed, "You and your perfect moments. You love them so much but are afraid to have too many of them. Why?"

Reggie shrugged, "Because then they're not special anymore."

Aaron wrapped his arms around his girlfriend, "With you, every moment is special."

As the two leaned in for a kiss, they were interrupted by an anxious foot tapping and throat clearing. Reggie slowly turned around to find a very angry Kurt Hummel staring at the two. The angry look turned to one of confusion and then relief as soon as Reggie said his name.

"Oh my," he said, collapsing on the bench next her. "I thought you were Blaine. I mean, I really thought you were Blaine. From the back, you look exactly like him."

"Yeah, that's pretty much why we're doing _Twelfth Night_. But you knew that."

"But I didn't…I mean, you look just like him. Even your hair…where is Blaine?"

Reggie motioned to the auditorium, "They're working on the fight choreography between Sebastian and Sir Toby. Blaine's sword keeps getting in the way. It's actually kind of funny; you should go in and see."

Kurt shook his head, "I'll wait till opening night. I want to be surprised." Kurt then turned and looked at Reggie's companion, a look of recognition igniting his face. "We met at sectionals, right? You're Aaron, Reggie's, err..."

"Boyfriend," Aaron finished for him. "And Blaine's surrogate brother. Well, sort of. It's a little confusing at times."

"Oh yes," Reggie agreed, "we Andersons are quite confusing at times."

"Tell me about it," Kurt sighed.

Reggie was about to ask Kurt what he meant when she felt her phone vibrate. "It looks like they're finally ready to do the finale. Aaron, you don't have to wait."

"No, it's okay. I'll have some time to study," he said while fiddling with his phone.

It wasn't until she entered the auditorium when she felt her phone vibrate again. _I think Kurt needs a lesson in the Anderson veil of obliviousness.  
><em>

_You're a great teacher_, she texted back before joining her brother on the stage.

XXX

Reggie wasn't able to find out what happened between Aaron and Kurt until the following day. Rehearsal ended up taking way too long, and so Aaron was long gone by the time Reggie and Blaine were finally able to go home. It annoyed what was left of the girl inside of her to no end that she couldn't gossip about her brother's love life to her boyfriend.

As soon as she heard Aaron's Firebird pull into the next door driveway, she bolted out of her room, down the stairs and out the front door.

So?" Reggie asked before he had stepped out of the car. "What happened?"

Aaron grabbed his backpack and shrugged, "You were right. He's in love. Come on, let's go in and I'll tell you all the details."

Reggie sat cross-legged on Aaron's bed, listening intently to what went down after she had returned to rehearsal. Aaron had point-blank told Kurt that he was in love with Blaine. Rather than deny it, Kurt asked Aaron knew. The boy had simply smiled and told Kurt about the mental daggers he felt in the back of his head before Kurt realized that he was staring at the wrong Anderson. Besides, Aaron had already 'been there, done that,' explaining how long he'd been in love with Reggie before she finally let on.

"You didn't tell him about, you know?" she interrupted.

"You think I have a death wish?"

Reggie smiled, "Good boy."

Aaron continued, "He was heartbroken. It's hard to be friends with someone knowing they have no idea how they feel about you."

Reggie looked down at the comfortable feeling both ashamed and embarrassed for torturing her best friend for so long because of her thick-headedness.

"I told him to be patient. I told him that Blaine needs to realize things himself. Hopefully it won't take ten years like it did with you, but it'll still take a while. Also, I told him that the key to Blaine's heart is his sister, so I wouldn't be surprised if he starts hanging around more often."

"Oh, gee thanks," Reggie swatted him playfully. "Are you coming to rehearsal tonight? It's dress. It's like an actual show."

"Sorry, I can't. I have to study for my chem test tomorrow. But I'll be in the front row tomorrow night, sitting next to Kurt…and apparently all of his friends from McKinley high. Didn't they beat us last year? And weren't we like the only team they beat?"

"Shut up and kiss me…before I have to leave for rehearsal. Or do you want to make me late?"

"You're not in the first scene, you can be late."

"And you can be a pain in the ass."

XXX

Opening night. There was no phrase better than opening night. It was the time moment when all of a performer's hard work was shown to be all about and as far as Reggie was concerned, every night was opening night. And so, here they were at their last performance, just as important and miraculous as their first performance, taking in the applause and laughter of the audience.

Apparently, Kurt had taken Aaron's advice to heart. The boy had come to every show, not even Aaron had done that. The funny thing was Reggie was all but positive Blaine thought it was normal, especially since he came with a different person each time. The first night, he came with a couple of girls. The next, his parents. On Saturday, a boy who just seemed freakishly tall as well as the brunette from two nights before. At the evening performance, it was if the blonde brigade had taken over. Today, he was here with an Asian couple along with a boy in a wheelchair and a cheerleader. And after every single performance, he made a point of finding Reggie and telling her how wonderful she was, even better than the night before. It would be funny if it weren't so...

Reggie didn't want to say pathetic. She realized, in hindsight, that Aaron did pretty much the same thing when she was performing. He was there every night during her theatre productions and came to every football and basketball game, and even competitions to see her cheer. And of course, he was pretty much best friends with Blaine. And once they got together, he didn't try so hard because he didn't have to. He simply told Kurt to do exactly what he did to win her. She just hoped it wouldn't take another tragedy to make her brother realize his feelings went beyond friendship. Of course, the Andersons did enjoy drama.

"Kurt, it's so nice to see you…again," Reggie said with a wink as her new best buddy, it seemed, was finished winding his way through the crowd of adoring teenagers.

"Oh, you know," he said, his hands running through his hair, "just wanted to make sure all of my friends were able to see you perform."

"Yes, I saw. Where are they?"

Kurt's eyes fell to the floor, "Oh, they had dinner plans."

"Right. So where's Blaine?" Reggie's eyes darted through the crowd looking for her brother. "I haven't seen him since final bows and I figured you find him first…"

"Oh, no. I was looking for him too. I just saw you first."

"Or you thought I was him?"

"What? No, of course not," Reggie couldn't help but notice Kurt's neck begin to redden.

She put her hand on his shoulder, "It's okay. Aaron told me what happened. You don't have to try so hard with me, I promise."

Kurt crossed his arms defensively, "Is it that obvious?"

Reggie smiled, "Come, let's find Blaine and then I'll treat you to some ice cream. Ice cream always makes the heart feel better."

"You're not going to the after party?"

She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, "Neither of us are. Besides I'd prefer hanging out with you and I promise that Blaine does too."


	7. Chapter 7

"What about this?" Blaine showed Reggie what he picked out.

Reggie shrugged, "It's a scarf."

"Kurt loves scarves."

"I highly doubt he loves generic scarves from the Gap," Reggie took the item out of her brother's hand and put it back on the rack. "Hermes seems much more his type."

"You know very well I can't afford Hermes."

"Marc Jacobs then," Reggie folded her arms and looked her brother squarely in the eyes. "Why are we even here? You always drag me to Barney's or Saks Off Fifth. Why the Gap?"

Blaine grabbed his sister's shoulders and spun her 180 degrees. "Him."

Reggie squinted and looked at the salesman Blaine was pointing to, "Him? Who's him?"

"Him is Jeremiah. I met him in the food court last week. He took me out to coffee and told me he works here."

"Goober, he's gotta be at least 23. And he works at the Gap. The Gap! Who works at the Gap except for college students and college drop outs? Nobody, that's who! What about Kurt?"

"What about Kurt?" Blaine started looking busy at the scarves again.

"Did you ask him to practice with you?"

"Yeah…"

"Yeah, and?" Reggie grabbed Blaine's chin, "Blaine, look at me. What is wrong with you? Why are you going for a guy who, frankly, looks like a douche, when you have a sweetheart who adores you at school?"

Blaine broke free of his sister's grip, "I told you before. He's still getting used to things and I'm his friend, that's all. I'm not going to mess up what we have based on the belief that you think he has a crush on me because I'm sure he would have told me if he did."

"Aaron never told me."

"Sure he did, you just never listened. Look, he's my best friend and the first guy I've really connected to emotionally and I'm not going to let anything ruin that, okay? Can we drop it?"  
>Reggie nodded begrudgingly and went back to shopping. And when Blaine went over to Jeremiah to talk about which scarf to buy his best friend, she slowly walked out of the store, texting him that she'd meet him at the food court. She didn't feel like watching her brother make one of the bigger mistakes of his life.<p>

XXX

"Do you think he'd like this?" It was Kurt's turn to go shopping with Reggie. When did she all of a sudden become everybody's shopping buddy?

Reggie smirked at the red and black Dolce and Gabbana scarf Kurt held up for her to inspect, "Well, he does love his reds. This would go nice with his complexion."

"So what are you getting him?" Kurt asked as they walked out of the store.

"Oh, we Andersons don't give each other gifts, we make each other gifts. Insanely inappropriate gifts. This year, I made him a sweater jacket."

"How's that inappropriate?"

"The strategically placed…and shaped…buttons, to make up for what he gave me last year."

Kurt lifted an eyebrow, "What did he give you last year?"

Reggie smiled coyly, letting Kurt know that she wasn't planning on answering his question.

"What about Aaron?"

Reggie shrugged, "Aaron's Jewish. His family already celebrated Chanukah last week. Our gifts are more…sentimental than anything else."

Personally, Reggie enjoyed celebrating with Aaron's family than she did with her own. During Christmas, probably the only time she was in the same room with her parents and her brother, her house was bombarded with drunken uncles and annoying cousins and she didn't know why her parents always had to be the ones to hold the family meal. They were the least familial of all her relatives. Even the previous year, when her _unfortunate accident _gave her parents the perfect "out" to hosting, they still held the celebration and Reggie still had to play the doting daughter.

She did give her parents credit, though. For as much as they kept their distance from their children, they never once denied who they were. Reggie simply believed that her parents just didn't know how to interact with their two alternative lifestyle children.

When she was at Aaron's, his parents filled her plate with latkes and apple sauce and jelly donuts. She didn't quite understand the point of jelly donuts, something having to do with the miracle of deep fryers perhaps? Behold, Dunkin' Donuts was open for eight whole days! And there was also noodle kugel and some kind of sweet potato pie called tsimmes and Aaron and his little sisters sat around the table playing with a dreidl as they bet each other with chocolate coins. And every night, as the light went down, Aaron's mother chose a child to light the candles on the menorah while the clan sang Rock of Ages. Life was simple there. She enjoyed spending time next door. So did Blaine, for that matter. Plus, she had a sneaking suspicion that, ever since her _unfortunate accident_, that Aaron's parents had quietly decided to unofficially adopt the two social orphans.

"So maybe not a scarf?" Kurt asked. Reggie had noticed that when it came to her brother, Kurt was constantly second guessing himself.

"No, no," she tried to reassure him, "a scarf is perfect. You two have known each other for less than two months and I think a scarf is a perfect two month friend gift."

When did she become the go-between for these two? Reggie used to have a life. She missed having a life. Her New Year's resolution for the coming year was definitely to get a life that didn't revolve around her brother's life. Stupid Blaine. She wished that for Christmas instead of giving him a sweater, she could instead just give him a clue.


	8. Chapter 8

"Explain this to me again. Why are you going to a football game? You hate football," Reggie asked as she tossed a rugby ball in the air while lying on her brother's bed as he attempted to get ready to go out.

"I love football."

"You love college football and professional football. You hate high school football."

"I'm supporting Kurt," Blaine was fixing his hair in his mirror.

"Supporting Kurt by going to a game being played by the kids who ran him out of school. That makes perfect sense."

"I went to all of your football games."

"That's because I was actually performing. And you always left after halftime anyway."

"It still counts," Blaine picked up the scarf that Kurt had given him for Christmas and wrapped it around his neck, "Are you sure you don't want to come?"

"I think I'm the only person who has a larger aversion to high school football than you do. Why do you think I started playing rugby?

Blaine shrugged, "A legal way to beat people up?"

Reggie smirked, "Besides, I've got rehearsal tonight, remember? We have barely a month to practice and we don't even get into the theatre for another three weeks. You go, have fun and give Kurt my best."

Blaine leaned over and kissed his sister on the forehead, "Oh, and by the way, don't tell Kurt about my aversion to high school football. He doesn't know about…well, you know."

Reggie smirked, "Your secret's safe with me, lover boy."

XXX

Reggie was sitting in the living room playing _The Force Unleashed_ when Blaine finally came home. She didn't bother turning around to ask him how the game was.

"They won," Blaine answered, plopping down on the couch next to her. "Rather an interesting game. The first half they had nine players, half of whom were girls and the second half, the players were all dressed like zombies."

"Fuck!" She turned around after getting killed by Darth Vader…again. "I always seem to die when you show up. About the game, I didn't even know that was legal."

Blaine took the controller from her sister, "Watch the master. The force is strong within me. And I think it's okay as long as everybody's name is already on the roster. How was rehearsal?"

"Good, really good. I think the show's going to be amazing. You should see Josh play Jackson. I mean I had some reservations but he's totally awesome. All I have to say is thank goodness Mom and Dad are in Philly this weekend. They so would be pissed at how loud we are."

"They're just glad you're performing in a heteronormative production."

"I'm playing a guy's part."

"No, you're playing the lead guitar and singing the songs the lead guitarist sings. You're not playing a male role. If anything, it's a gender neutral role. Besides, it's common trope these days for women to take over male roles in non-professional theatre productions due to the lack of guys auditioning for theatre. I mean it's not like you're playing Andrew Jackson…or Martin Van Buren, for that matter. Dammit! Why must you be so hard to kill, Vader?" Blaine handed the controller back to Reggie. "Oh, and they're also ecstatic that you're also the makeup person."

"Is it my fault that I can do flawless smoky eyes?" She grabbed the controller with glee.

"Well figuring you asked mom to teach you how to put on makeup and then you went out and bought one of those smoky eye how-to kits, I'd go with 'yes.'" Reggie huffed, knowing her brother's logic was indisputable. Having won the argument, Blaine asked, "Where's Aaron?"

"We aren't connected at the hip, you know," she ignored her brother's look of disbelief. "He's asleep. He has a belt test tomorrow."

"Didn't he just have one last month?"

"That one was for taekwondo. This one's for judo."

"And when's your next belt test?"

"Not for a while," Reggie paused the game. "Speaking of sleeping, shouldn't you be heading to bed soon? With all your warbling, you have a lot of homework to do tomorrow."

"Gee, thanks, Mom," Blaine attempted to swat her sister who easily evaded his grasp.

"I'm sure Mom would be saying exactly the same thing if she were here. Okay, maybe you don't have to go to bed yet. Hungry?"

Blaine shook his head, "No, Kurt's parents took us and his brother for a celebratory dinner at Breadstix."

Reggie nudged her brother with her shoulder, "Aw, look at you, already making friends with the family. Next thing you know, there will be Anderson-Hummel get-togethers."

Blaine lowered his eyes trying to hide a smile, "Stop."

"Okay, no more teasing, tell me about the game," Reggie unpaused the game and continued on her quest to vanquish Vader as Blaine gave her the play-by-play of probably the most interesting game either of them would ever see.

XXX

"Why is everything so pink?" Reggie cringed as she entered the coffee shop.

"It's for the holiday. Come on, you used to wear pink all the time," Aaron answered following her in.

"Yeah, that was when I was trying to be a girl and even then that was all I could do to keep myself from puking. Where are they?" Reggie looked around until she saw Blaine and his friend sitting at a corner table. She waved to get their attention and went to join them.

"No coffee?" Kurt asked as she took one of the empty chairs.

"It's Aaron's turn to buy," she turned around and gave her boyfriend a little wave. He waved back only finally turning when she realized the barista was asking his order. "So what's the news at Dalton?"

"Did Blaine tell you he's planning on serenading somebody he has a crush on?" Kurt asked with a lilt to his voice.

"No, he didn't," Reggie eyed her brother suspiciously. "Goober, you're going to ask somebody out through song? How…showman of you."

The foursome talked about school and performance and upcoming events, the whole while Reggie biting her lip about Blaine's idiotic idea to sing to somebody she was positive wasn't Kurt. She wanted to wait until Kurt left before she ripped her brother a new one. It wasn't fair to the kid and she didn't understand why Blaine couldn't see that.

"You fucking asshole!" she finally said after Kurt said his goodbyes and the remaining threesome piled into her car. "You're singing to Jeremiah? Are you kidding me? He's a member of the fucking AARP!"

Blaine looked like a deer caught in the headlights, "He's not that old."

"He can buy us beer and without using a fake ID. No, backseat for you," she forced her brother to get out of the passenger seat.

"She has a point," Aaron shrugged as he took Blaine's former seat.

"Whose side are you on?" Blaine asked readjusting to his new seat.

"You're kidding, right? When you and I start fooling around, then maybe I'll take your side. Until then, I'm firmly on hers."

Reggie smiled as she started the car, "Good boy. Seriously, Goober, you're in for a world hurt. Gap Boy is a douche."

XXX

Reggie sat on her couch in disbelief as she listened to her brother explain the details of his proposed "Gap Attack." He was seriously planning on singing _When I Get You Alone_?

"Oh my."

Blaine grimaced, "You think it's a bit much, don't you?"

"You're the one obsessed with the holiday, not me."

"I'm also the one who's single."

Reggie put her hand on his thigh and squeezed, "Goober, have you thought about what would happen if he doesn't like you that way?"

Blaine scoffed, "We've already gone out for coffee a couple of times."

"You go out for coffee with Kurt dozens of times."

"That's different, Kurt's my friend."

"What did Kurt say about your plan?"

Blaine smiled, "He's totally behind me. He even backed me up at the council meeting."

"Wait, wait, you didn't mention that part. The Warblers are providing backup? This I so have to see."

"You're going to come for support?"

"Oh, brother of mine, I wouldn't miss this for the world." _You're so gonna get your ass handed to you_, she couldn't help but think to herself.

XXX

The Gap Attack was even more of a catastrophe than Reggie could have predicted. She spent the majority of the time watching Kurt try to send daggers with his eyes through Jeremiah's head. But she also found it very interesting that while the majority of the customers in the store were enjoying the impromptu performance, the object of the serenade kept trying to run away from Blaine. Of course, he didn't seem to notice at all. The whole scene would be hilarious if it weren't so depressing.

Before Reggie left, she took Kurt aside, "He's going to be devastated. I'd stay but I have rehearsal. Would you mind dealing with him?"

She felt bad abandoning her brother at his moment of need but she felt that seeing him get shot down would make Kurt feel a little better about his own situation. She knew Blaine would give her the complete details later.

XXX

And give her details he did. Plus a little surprise she wasn't expecting.

"Did you know that Kurt thought I was going to ask him out for Valentine's Day?" Blaine asked shoveling ice cream in bowls for the two of them.

"You're kidding," Reggie grabbed the whipped cream. Her parents had relented and now had given her access to the contents of the refrigerator.

"Totally not. Apparently he thought I was flirting with him. Sprinkles?"

"Of course. He really thought you were flirting?" Reggie snickered. "Really?"

"Yes, really. But don't worry, I assured him that even though I care about him immensely, I would never even fathom destroying our friendship just for the sake of having a boyfriend," Blaine took a spoonful of his ice cream and stuffed it into his mouth.

"Goober, I…"

"What?" he asked, his mouth full. Reggie held back a laugh.

"I seriously have no idea. Really and truly, no idea whatsoever."

"Anyway…so have you and Aaron made plans for Valentine's yet?"

"You know how much I hate the commercialization of the holiday. Relationship or no, I don't need to celebrate the holiday to know somebody loves me."

"So that's a no?"

Reggie channeled her best Ed McMahon, "You are correct, sir."

"Great. That means you two can come to Breadstix. Kurt's planning a Valentine's anti-celebration. And you can meet his McKinley friends."

"You mean all the people he dragged to _Twelfth Night_?"

Blaine shrugged, "Pretty much."

"I'll ask Aaron."

XXX

They sat near the stage, cheering on her brother and his friends. She watched Kurt cautiously, knowing full well that the confession he made to her brother had been completely misconstrued. To his credit, he looked quite nonplussed.

It both warmed and broke Reggie's heart to see the boy interact with his friends. They cared so much for each other, it must have been horrible when he had to leave. She couldn't help but feel slight jealousy to see how loved he was when it was so easy for both her and Blaine to leave their school. Maybe if they'd had a support system like Kurt, Blaine never would have been bashed and Reggie would currently be counting down the days until graduation.

Too many "shoulda, coulda, woulda's." Reggie took a sip of water and swallowed her regret. At that moment she made a promise to herself. She would leave dealing with the past to when she was in group or with her therapist. Otherwise, the present was about the present. And she was going to do her best to make sure she didn't have to regret anything she did ever again.

In any case, the kids from McKinley seemed like a nice group of people. Several came up to her after the Warbler set, having recognized her from _Twelfth Night_ or simply noticing her uncanny resemblance to her brother.

"You must be Blaine's brother," one very blonde girl said. She didn't correct her. "Do you go to Dalton too?"

Reggie smiled and shook her head, introducing herself and offering her hand. The girl shook it before rejoining an equally blonde boy she assumed was the boyfriend.

"You guys enjoying yourselves?" Kurt slid into the booth next to Reggie.

She motioned him to come closer and gave him a peck on the cheek, "You really are the sweetest. I hope my brother realizes how lucky he is to have you around."

Kurt looked down, "I hope he does too."

"And you!" she nudged him a bit with her shoulder. "You and your friends are just amazing."

"They all seem to think you're a boy."

Reggie shrugged, "I'm used to it. You did too once, or did you forget?"

"It doesn't bother you? I mean I get annoyed when people intimate that I'm a girl."

"So Kurt, with such great friends, why did you leave your old school?" How Reggie loved Aaron at that moment, allowing himself to look like an idiot to save Reggie anymore embarrassment. She did her girlfriendly duties and kicked him under the table. "Ow!"

"Oh, I'm sorry. Was that your leg?" Reggie did her best to sound contrite.

"Whatcha guys talking about?" Blaine had finally found his way to their table and took the spot next to Aaron.

"Oh, nothing," Reggie smiled. "My loving boyfriend has seemed to have caught a bad case of foot-in-mouth disease."

Blaine put his hand on Aaron's shoulder, "It seems you've been hanging around the Andersons a little too much."

"Tell me about it," Aaron was still rubbing his shin. "Look, we're gonna be heading out soon. Do you want a ride or are you going to stay here and hang with Kurt?"

Blaine glanced over at his friend, "No, I'll ride with you guys. Let Kurt hang out with his friends for a while. That okay? So you don't have to waste time dropping me off."

"No, that's fine, thank you, "the disappointment in Kurt's voice was palpable. Reggie instinctively squeezed his shoulder. She would have to have that talk with him and soon.


	9. Chapter 9

"Are you sure you don't want to go?" Blaine was going through his closet trying to find a specific sweater.

Reggie stood behind him, folding each and every article clothing he tossed her way, "I've had my fair share of high school parties, thank you very much."

"I hate to break it to you, but you're still a teenager."

"Yes, a teenager who has had her fair share of high school parties."

Having succeeded in his quest, Blaine turned around and looked at his sister quizzically, "That wasn't you. And these aren't the same people. They accept people like us. Rachel has two gay dads."

Reggie gave her brother a fake smile. "Wonderful!" she said sarcastically. "What does that have to do with anything? Goober, alcohol and I don't mix. We never have. I don't want to think about the times I woke up in some random guy's bed praying to G-D I hadn't done anything I'd regret. Do you know how embarrassing it is to go to Planned Parenthood for a pregnancy test and find out you're still a virgin?"

"Whoa," Blaine put his hands up, "too much information."

"My point still stands," she put her hands on his shoulders. "Promise me you'll call if things get too rowdy, and you need a ride home, okay?"

"Okay," he pulled her into a hug. "Don't worry. I'm sure there will be a designated driver." He broke the hug and looked her in the eyes. "So what are your big plans tonight?"

Reggie smiled, this time for real, "Jackson rehearsal. It's our first run-through. We get our performance space in two more weeks. Tom figured we should get the show as perfect as possible before we move in so we can deal with all the problems of being in a new space."

"You're so lucky Mom and Dad aren't here. They'd kill you if they found out you turned the basement into a rehearsal studio."

Reggie punched her brother in the shoulder before he ran downstairs and out the door.

XXX

As soon as she heard the car leave the driveway, Reggie was in the basement, setting up the music equipment and makeshift performance space. The one good thing about _Jackson _was that the company decided early in the planning stage to stay true to the original production to keep the staging very low key. They were using old couches, tables and chairs that they picked up at a few thrift shops that were currently in storage at different members' houses. Reggie's basement was mostly storage and so there she had no problem using anything in there as a substitute for their actual props.

She had barely finished setting up when the first of her cast mates started showing up. Reggie wasn't the youngest of the company, the girl playing Rachel had a birthday three weeks after hers and of course the boy playing Lincoya had just turned thirteen, but she was the newest to the group. She joined them the previous spring, finding herself going crazy without a creative outlet to release some of her anxiety. She was turned on to the company by Tom, a member of her support group and another transman, who had pretty much taken Reggie under his wing after seeing how lost she was. Tom was only a few years older than Reggie but he had been on hormones since high school and had just had top surgery completed. Reggie couldn't help but idol-worship him a little and gladly accepted his invitation to join the theatre rep. Jackson was his directorial debut and Reggie was all but surprised to find out that he had chosen the show just to showcase her on lead guitar.

They were barely into their second hour of rehearsal when Reggie got the first text from Blaine. _Blergitty boo, hi s sis. Miss U._ Great, he was drunk already. Not good.

"Is everything okay?" Tom was staring at her with an annoyed expression on his face.

"Yeah," Reggie slid her phone into her back pocket, "my brother just drunk-texted me. He's not big on partying. Sorry."

Blaine proceeded to text her nearly a dozen more times that night. Reggie made sure to ignore his messages until her cast mates left. As much leeway as the company gave her, one dirty look a night was enough or her. Around midnight, Aaron came by and the two enjoyed reading the inane non-dapper messages Drunk!Blaine was capable, or incapable rather, of typing into his iPhone. One message in particular caught the pair's interest.

"Spin the bottle?" Aaron said. "With a girl? I thought the Andersons didn't like kissing girls."

Reggie grinned, "Ooh, I'm going to tease him mercilessly about that."

The two continued to read and comment well after the texts stopped coming and eventually fell asleep together above the covers on Reggie's bed.

XXX

The sun was up by the time her phone rang. Reggie reached over and looked at the callerID. Oh, goody, Blaine was still alive. But why was he calling now? And what time was it?

"Do you have any idea what time it is and what time I went to bed?" she asked as soon as she pressed the talk button.

"Reggie?" the voice on the other end was definitely not her brother.

"Kurt?" Reggie was alert now. "Is everything okay?"

"Can you come pick up Blaine? He's here at my house," well he didn't sound worried so that was a good sign.

"He drove there. Did you let him drive drunk? Did he total my car?"

"No, no, it's just…he still seems…I don't think he's okay to drive yet."

"He's that hung over?"

"Pretty much."

"We'll be there in thirty," Reggie hung up and nudged the lump that was laying down next to her. "Get up. I need you to drive me to Kurt's."

"Drive yourself," Aaron mumbled into the pillow.

"I can't. Blaine took my car."

"So get him to drive you." Reggie smacked him on the ass. "Hey! Violence, much?"

"Remember those text messages we were reading last night? Well apparently he drank more than just a lot which is why I need to pick him up."

"So why do I have to go?"

"How else am I going to get my car back?"

Aaron was more awake now, "What's in it for me?"

Reggie gave him a mischievous smile, "I'll break out the cheerleading outfit."

Aaron's eyes instantly lit up, "Ooh…wait, who'll be wearing it?"

"Aw, you don't want me to spoil the surprise, do you?"

"Okay, fine, just let me find my pants."

XXX

Thirty minutes later, Reggie hopped out of Aaron's car and gave him a kiss through the window. She slowly walked up the stairs to the Hummel residence. She turned around and saw Aaron was sitting in the car, watching to make sure everything was alright. She turned back and rang the doorbell. A man wearing a baseball cap who had very familiar eyes opened the door. She recognized him from _Twelfth Night_.

"Mr. Hummel?" she asked, her voice wavering.

He looked at her curiously, "How did you get down here so fast?"

"What?" Reggie asked confused before she realized the mistake. "No, sorry. I'm Reggie. Kurt called. I'm here to pick up my brother."

"Oh, right," Mr. Hummel motioned for Reggie to enter. "Kurt, your friend's brother is here!" he yelled.

"Who?" Reggie heard a voice from upstairs.

"It's me!" she answered back. "I'm coming up the stairs now."

She followed the voice to what she assumed was Kurt's bedroom. She entered to find Blaine still passed out on the bed. Kurt sat on the side looking at him dumbfounded. He finally looked up and noticed Reggie.

"So you want me to get Finn?" he asked. "I mean he's kind of –"

"No, it's cool," Reggie didn't let him finish. She turned to her brother and kneeled so that she was looking at him face-to-face. "Rise and shine, Sleeping Beauty."

"Prez?" Blaine rubbed his eyes. "What are you doing here? What am I doing here?"

"Shh, don't, save the conversation for the car."

She easily scooped her brother up in her arms and stood up.

"I've been meaning to ask," Kurt said, walking with her to the door, "why does he call you 'Prez'"

"Because Reegan is the best president ever," Blaine declared into her shoulder.

Reggie sighed, "Only according to our parents."

"You were named after Ronald Reagan?" Kurt was incredulous.

"Well, our parents deny it but that's Blaine's theory, isn't it, kiddo?"

"Why does everything keep moving?" Blaine asked

"Because I'm carrying you to the car," she whispered into his ear as she maneuvered down the stairs.

"Oh," Blaine nodded in understanding. "Prez? Promise me you won't let me drink again? Or at least the next time I do you'll join me?"

"Yeah, no. You don't listen to me, remember?" They were finally outside. Aaron had already left. Reggie steadied her brother against her car as she struggled to open the door and get him inside. "Kurt, thanks for calling. I really hope he wasn't too much trouble. We Andersons can be pretty crazy drunks."

Kurt looked from Reggie to Blaine, "Yeah, I figured that out."

"Anyway, thanks again. I'm sure Blaine'll call you when he's got his head back on straight," she hugged her brother's best friend in reassurance and got in the driver's seat. She was so going to tease Blaine once he was finished nursing his hangover.

XXX

Reggie was in the basement with the _Jackson_ cast when she heard what sounded like a tornado barge through the house and rush upstairs before finally slamming a door shut so hard the whole house shook. Stupid McMansion and its shoddy craftsmanship, she thought to herself. Reggie excused herself to check and see if she needed to call FEMA.

"Careful there," Reggie said as she slowly opened the door to her brother's room, "be nice to the house or I won't be the only person here with a curtain for a door."

Blaine was laying on his bed doing math homework, "Don't you have a rehearsal to be at?"

"_Jackson_ doesn't need me right now. You do," she slid onto the bed next to him. "What happened?"

Blaine sighed and sat up, "Kurt's upset at me for making a date on Friday."

"A date? With who?"

He started slowly, "You remember Rachel."

Reggie nodded, "Short, loud girl. Wait…girl?"

Blaine turned back to his homework, "Don't you start too. She asked me out and I said yes. What's wrong with that?"

"Absolutely nothing. I'm all for experimentation."

"I kissed her, you know."

"I know. You drunk texted me."

"I did?"

"Yup, see?" She took out her phone to show him the myriad of messages she received Saturday night, stopping at the one that read 'kissing girls is awesome.' She put away her phone and put her hand on his knee, "Blaine, go on the date, enjoy yourself, but don't question your sexuality based on one drunken experience. G-D knows I never did. But promise me one thing."

"What?"

"Ask yourself why Kurt is upset with you. A cigar isn't always a cigar, you know." Her phone vibrated. She took it out and grimaced, "Gotta go. They miss me downstairs. We'll talk about this later, 'kay?"

"'kay."

Reggie had her phone out before she reached the stairs and was calling the number she swiped from her brother's address book. The phone picked up on the second ring.

"Kurt? It's Reggie."

"Oh, hi," the voice on the other end sounded less than ecstatic.

"I was wondering if you're busy Friday night? I know my brother is being a total jerk and I'd like to make it up to you."

"You don't have to."

"No, I don't. But I want to."

"You sure?"

"Come by the house around seven. We'll have fun. I promise."

Kurt was silent for a short while, "I'll see you at seven."

XXX

"Let's do _Rock Star_ one more time. Jack you were slow with your intro. Try to come in half a beat sooner, okay?" Tom said.

Reggie looked at the clock. Kurt was supposed to be there any minute. She had asked Aaron to come by the house and let him in if rehearsal went over, which it more often did than not. Today was obviously no exception. She pushed the upcoming time out of her head and started counting the beats as she started the intro and began to sing.

She looked up to find Kurt standing at the base of the steps watching the performance. When the song finished, she excused herself as the rest of the cast grabbed their equipment and headed out.

"I'm sorry, am I too early?" Kurt asked watching the musicians file past him.

"No, not at all," Reggie said. "We tend to run a little late. Got as get as much rehearsal in as possible, especially when the 'rents aren't around. Which is more often than not, come to think of it."

"So you're in a band."

"Well, sort of. You're looking at the cast and accompaniment of the rep's production of _Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson_. Unfortunately, we have no money to rent out rehearsal space and we don't get access to the theatre til next week so we've been taking turns hosting rehearsals. We open in a little less than two weeks. I hope you can come. I'll have Blaine remind you or force you to go with him."

Kurt looked at the floor, "If he doesn't bring his girlfriend."

"Yeah, that's pretty much why I invited you over."

He looked up, "You want to criticize me too?"

"Hardly," she motioned him to sit on the couch. "Kurt, have you ever kissed a girl?"

"Well, I…" It was impossible for Reggie to miss the blush that crept up his neck and cheeks.

"That's what I thought. You tried, you experimented. Blaine never has. He came out when he was fourteen and once he realized he was gay, that was it. But you see, it's harder for him these days."

"What do you mean?"

"Come," she held out her hand which Kurt accepted, "I want to show you something."

She walked him over to the closet and opened it, pulling out a trunk. She slowly opened it, revealing her cheerleading outfit and pompoms, dresses and pictures.

"What's this?" Kurt asked slowly pulling out the flashy contents.

"This trunk contains what's left of my former life," she took Kurt's hand again and looked into his eyes. "Kurt, do you remember what you said when you first met me?"

"I told Blaine that I thought you were gay."

"It's okay. Most people do. But if you'd met me two years ago, the thought would never have crossed your mind."

"What happened?"

Reggie let go of Kurt's hand and cupped his cheek, "Oh, honey, you did."

He shook her free, "What are you talking about?"

Reggie turned back to the trunk, "Blaine didn't recognize you but I did. He had no reason to really, he was in the stands. But I was on the field. I saw you."

She told him about the football game, watching him dance, making the winning field goal, watching how happy he was when his teammates lifted him on their shoulders.

"It made me think a lot about who I was and who I was trying to be. You see, Blaine wasn't the only one who was teased and bullied. He wasn't the only one who hid. The only difference is he hid at Dalton while I hid in plain sight.

"The person you see before you, well, a reasonable facsimile of her exited until I was about fourteen. I was the quintessential tomboy, playing rugby and soccer and lacrosse and tae kwon do and karate. From the time I was four til junior high, you couldn't get me in a skirt. My mother tried many times and I'd bite her. Literally, she still has scars.

"But then middle school happened. And if you think it's hard being an effeminate guy, multiply it by a hundred if you're a masculine girl. I mean guys teasing and bullying is one thing but girls…girls are just cruel. They called me things that I…I can't even…The best one was when they called me Reggie instead of Reegan."

"But you –" Kurt interrupted. "Sorry."

"No, it's okay. I'll explain that later. Girls can also be physical in nonviolent means. I can't tell you how many times I came home in tears. And then it started happening to Blaine and I was practically tortured for protecting him, we both were. And that's when I made the choice to change.

"The summer before I started high school, I got all the seasons of _Gossip Girl_, _Dawson's Creek_, _Buffy_, watched ALL the _Bring it On_ movies, _Mean Girls_, _She's All That_. I had my mother take me shopping, teach me how to put make up on, walk in heels, act like a lady. I dropped all my extra-curriculars, well, not the martial arts, tried out and made the cheerleading squad, as well as tennis, strangely enough. And an amazing thing happened."

"What?"

"All the teasing stopped, especially when I started dating the quarterback, who was a senior at the time. It was a huge coup for a freshman.

"But it was so tiring, keeping up this act. And when my brother got chased out of school, I had to act that much harder, especially when he started coming home in smiles instead of tears.

"But see, the thing is, I couldn't for the life of me figure out what was wrong with me. I used to think I was gay but that didn't make sense, 'cause I wasn't attracted to girls. Hell, I thought I'd convinced myself I wasn't attracted to girls so I experimented – yay cheerleaders, but nope, definitely not a lesbian. So here's the part where you come in.

"You were yourself and you were your team's hero because you were yourself. You were accepted for who you were and that idea, that thought, my fear of knowing what would happen if I became myself, well it was the impetus for my little accident."

"Accident?"

Reggie slowly and deliberately removed her wrist cuffs, showing Kurt her secret shame. She went on to explain her suicide attempt, Blaine's subsequent rescue and waking up in the hospital.

"You're the first person aside from my family and Aaron who I've ever showed them to," Reggie smiled, trying to blink back her tears.

"I am so sorry."

"Don't be. It was bound to happen eventually. And in many ways, it was the best thing to happen to me. You see, I met this guy."

"Aaron."

"No, George. He runs a group for people like me, people who aren't comfortable in their own skin, and I started going and it took me a while but I finally started to accept who I was, what I was."

Reggie once again took Kurt's hand and looked in his eyes, "I'm transgendered, Kurt."

"You're what?"

"Transgendered."

Kurt tried to shake Reggie free but her grip was too tight, "But you're not gay."

Reggie laughed, "That's what I originally said. Turns out that's not a requirement for being born the wrong gender. I mean I still identify as female because the idea of transitioning a hundred percent, well, that kind of freaks me out too.

"So anyway, I cut my hair, stole half of my brother's clothes, tossed most of my old clothes and took the name my classmates used as a taunt and accepted it as a strength. And here I am." Reggie finally let Kurt go and studied him.

"What about school?" he finally asked.

Reggie ran her fingers through her hair, "Haven't figured that part out yet. I dropped out last year due to all this. I'm a year behind now and right now I'm trying to find a place to go next year. Dalton's a no-go since I haven't fully transitioned, Country Crawford exacerbated the problem and there's absolutely no way in hell I'm going back to my old school, especially since Aaron won't be there next year.

"But the point of the story is my brother. For a long time he didn't have to worry about disappointing our parents. Not that they weren't disappointed, did he ever tell you the story of the car job? Whooboy! That was a mess. Anyway, once I came out? It's funny, they seemed cool with it but have you ever seen them? Sometimes I think if I'd been a full-on lesbian, Blaine and I would have been given up for adoption by now.

"What I'm saying is, Blaine kissed your friend. He enjoyed it. Was it because he was drinking? Probably but if you had a chance to be like…them, wouldn't you jump at it? I know I would."

"But you did."

"That was before I knew what I was, and it almost killed me. In a lot of ways, I wish I was a lesbian 'cause then, I think, I'd make more sense, but I'm lucky. I have my wonderful brother, my insanely understanding boyfriend and now, I hope, you.

"And Blaine's the same. He and I…I don't think either of us would be as well adjusted if we didn't have each other. We're insanely similar, he and I. We're very VERY presciently observant when it comes to each other but when it comes to ourselves? We've both earned places on the special bus when it comes to how oblivious we are. If it weren't for Blaine and my unfortunate accident, I would never have realized how crazy Aaron was about me and vice-versa."

"But I've told him how I have feelings for him."

Reggie shook her head, "No, you didn't. You told him you thought he had feelings for you, completely different. He does, by the way. He just doesn't realize it yet. He will. And when he does, you'll know beyond a doubt. We Andersons, we tend to act quickly, without thinking, when it comes to things we're passionate about. So my advice to you is be yourself. Let him see the real you, the one you were before you started trying to impress him. It's as Joni Mitchell once said, 'Don't it always seem to go, you don't know what you've got til it's gone.' Now, I don't know about you, but I'm starving, you want to order pizza?"

XXX

Blaine was home before ten. Now Reggie didn't know much about dating, but if she knew anything, it was that a date that ended before midnight was not a good date, especially on a Friday night. She was waiting in his bedroom, Kurt long gone, by the time he got back.

"How'd the date go?" she asked nonchalantly.

Blaine shrugged, "It was nice."

"Just nice?"

"Yeah, I mean we had fun."

"Did you two kiss or anything?"

"No," Blaine ran his hand over his hair, "it didn't feel right."

"No, I doubt it would. Goober," Reggie patted the bed, encouraging Blaine to sit down, "it's time we had that talk."

"Mom and Dad aren't ever coming back, are they?" Blaine accepted the invitation.

"Do you think they'd come home sooner if you were bisexual or straight?" she asked seriously.

Blaine shrugged again, "I don't know. Possibly."

"Possibly, but unlikely. They travel a lot, always have, before I came out, before you came out. They do travel more often now but I'm pretty sure that's because we're older and more responsible than we were at fourteen."

"You're just saying that."

"Maybe, but that's pretty much irrelevant. What's relevant is what you want. Goober, what exactly do you want?"

"I don't know."

"Do you know what I want? Or rather what I used to want?"

"You wanted to be like everybody else."

"Close. All I really wanted to be was to belong. It didn't matter to what. You missed my lesbian phase. To say that was a mistake would be a HUGE understatement."

Blaine chuckled, "You mean your cheerleading sleepovers?"

Reggie rolled her eyes, "I wish."

"Wait, are you talking about –"

"Whatever happens in London stays in London. But I digress. It didn't matter where I belonged as long as it was somewhere. But as far as I was concerned, I didn't belong anywhere. But Blaine, gay, bi, straight, curvy even, you belong. You fit in and you always have.

"If you're attracted to Rachel, by all means, go for it, or if you find yourself lusting after other girls, by all means have at it but never, NEVER compromise who or what you are just to be like everybody else. Okay?"

Blaine smiled, "Okay."

Reggie kissed her brother on his forehead and went to her room. She just hoped that she had knocked some sense into him because she was just too tired to deal with anymore drama any time soon.


	10. Chapter 10

Reggie entered the Lima Bean Monday evening to find Kurt sitting alone at a table.

"Where is everybody?" she asked giving him a kiss on the cheek before sitting in the chair next to him. "I thought Rachel was supposed to be here. And where's my brother?"

Kurt had a look on his face that Reggie could only describe as bewilderment. She watched take a moment to register whatever internal monologue was occurring in his head, "Um, Rachel went to write folk songs or something and Blaine is in the…oh, there he is."

Reggie turned around to see her brother search the coffee shop before taking a spot in the back of the line to order. She left her bag with Kurt as she went to join her brother.

"Where did Rachel go?" Blaine asked, still looking around the shop. "She was supposed to hold my place in line."

"Kurt said she went to write songs. Did I miss something?"

"Oh," Blaine smiled, "You were right."

"I was? About what?"

"I'm gay."

Reggie looked at her brother quizzically, "Yes, and?"

"I'm positive I'm gay. No more questioning for me."

"Great, I think. I'm going to go sit with Kurt now. Order for me?" she didn't bother to let her brother respond before she rejoined her friend at the table.

"What did I miss?"

Kurt shrugged, "Apparently the short fever dream that was Blaine and Rachel has come to an end."

"Oh, well that's good then," Reggie smiled and squeezed Kurt's hand.

When Blaine returned with the drinks, he smiled at Kurt and laughed as if the craziness of the past week had never happened. Reggie smiled to herself, pleased that her brother's friendship had survived its first fight. She just prayed that the next one wouldn't be so dramatic.

XXX

Reggie was staring at herself in Blaine's full length mirror. She had finally added the finishing touches to her _Jackson_ costume and had come to Blaine for his approval. For all of her talk of bravado, she was having second thoughts, "I can't do this."

Blaine was slightly more convinced, "Yes you can."

"No, I can't. What was I thinking? I can't do this," she turned to leave the room and get out of the ridiculous costume.

Blaine sighed and grabbed her sister by the shoulders, "Reegan, you always have a meltdown before dress rehearsal and you always get through it. It's like your little ritual to show that you're not a crazy spotlight hog. True?"

Reggie looked down at her boots, "I guess. I just feel so…naked."

"You're going to have your huge-ass guitar in front of you. Plenty of cover."

Reggie considered that for a moment. "I know that but…"

Blaine pulled his sister in front of the mirror, "Look at yourself. You're wearing more clothing than when you were a cheerleader. You're showing no midriff, you have a long sleeve shirt on and come on, you're wearing jeans."

"I'm wearing skinny jeans and this shirt is so tight I can see my intestines."

"Only because you're looking for them. Maybe you should talk to George about this. I mean, it's not you, it's your character. You shouldn't get freaked out about it. Hell, you were less freaked out when you went to prom last year."

"That was different."

"How?"

Reggie took a deep breath and turned around to face her brother, "I don't know. Maybe because then it was a matter of life and death. Maybe because I didn't want to…"

"Get the crap beat out of you?"

Reggie shrugged, "Kind of."

"Reggie, you chose the costume."

"What's your point?"

"You do this every time. And every time you get on stage and you realize you forget that you're uncomfortable."

Reggie considered what her brother said for a few seconds, "I guess you're right. Um, Blaine, can you do me a favour?"

"Sure."

"Can I borrow your flat iron? You know, so I can straighten my hair?"

Blaine slowly backed away from his sister, grabbed a pillow from his bed and hit Reggie squarely in the back. Not being one to admit defeat, Reggie ran for her own weapon and attacked with the same amount of gusto. The two siblings fought bravely and when the pillow battle finally came to a cease-fire, Blaine gallantly ceded his hair products for the duration of _Andrew Jackson_'s run.

XXX

Opening night. It was finally opening night. Reggie had borrowed, okay, stolen, her brother's hair gel, attempting to tame the Anderson curls and mold them into a modified fauxhawk. Makeup could wait until the theatre but styling her hair always took forever.

"Wow," Reggie turned around to find Kurt staring at her, "Sorry, I…"

"Need to use the bathroom?" she asked, gathering her tools. "I'm pretty much finished. I have to get going soon anyways."

"Thanks," Reggie noticed that Kurt averted her eyes as she passed him. Was it because of what she told him the week before? Was it something else? This wasn't good.

"Hey, Goober," she entered her brother's room without knocking. "Have you noticed Kurt acting a little weird lately?"

Blaine shifted at his desk, "No, not really, why?"

She eyed her brother, "Nothing, it's just he gave me a strange look when I was in the bathroom."

"It's probably because you were with him in the bathroom."

"I'm being serious."

"Fine. Well, he knows you're a guy now. Maybe he's developing a crush on you."

"You know very well it doesn't work that way. Besides, he already has a crush on you," Reggie turned to leave.

"I'll believe it when I see it…Oh, and Reegan?"

Reggie turned back, "Hmm?"

Blaine leaned towards the door, "You're buying me new product."

XXX

For all her posturing and protesting about being clad in skintight jeans and tee, once she was onstage, Reggie would be at ease performing in a bustier. As long as the curtain was up and the stage lights on, Reggie Anderson ceased to be and a brand new person took over.

And for the next two weeks, Reggie was a cowboy punk rock guitarist from 1825, which made even less sense when she tried to explain the concept out loud but was completely understandable the moment she stepped out on stage and grabbed her guitar.

Reggie was constantly amazed with the risks Tom took with his artistic choices when directing. They seldom failed to disappoint and when they did, he was applauded for his bold choices.  
><em>Andrew Jackson<em>, however, was unique. Tom had made the decision early in the rehearsal process to give the musician more narrative roles than originally intended. Part of his reason was logical. Musicians taking on lines meant fewer actors were needed. Mostly it was an excuse to showcase Reggie. This was far from a secret. Aside from the guy playing Jackson, Reggie was the best performer in the cast.

Maybe it was because she had spent her entire life pretending she was something she wasn't, maybe it was because performing was part of the Anderson genes, when onstage, Reggie was home. The only times she felt as comfortable was when she was hanging out with one of her boys. Not to showcase her talent and ease would be a complete mistake.  
>The moment after the curtain went down, however, Reggie was in the dressing room, a sweatshirt and baggie jeans having replaced her costume and cold cream quickly wiping the makeup from her face.<p>

"That was fast," Reggie saw her brother's reflection in the mirror.

"That's the idea," Reggie turned to face him. "What'd you think?"

Blaine smiled and moved to hug her sister, "I think you were born for the stage. And Tom possibly has a bit of a crush on you."

"Please," Reggie playfully pushed him away, "I'm so not his type. But you really liked it?"

Blaine nodded, "Everybody did. I think Kurt is forming your official fan club as we speak." She gave him a dirty look. "Well, maybe not but he is waiting outside."

Reggie forewent the opening night party. She never felt comfortable in group party settings, particularly due to her past history and Tom completely understood apprehensions. He wished her a good night and told her to get ready for a repeat performance the next night. Reggie smiled and went for pizza and ice cream back at the house with Blaine, Kurt and Aaron. Throughout the night, she couldn't help but notice that Kurt was quieter than normal.

"What's going on?" Reggie asked when Kurt and Aaron had finally left and the two were left to clean dishes in the kitchen. "Did you do something stupid?"

"Why do you always assume I'm the one who did something wrong?" Blaine avoided her gaze and tried to leave the room.

She blocked the door, "You're deflecting! Spill! What did you do?"

Blaine proceeded to explain the events of the last few days, the gas pains during an impromptu performance of the song _Animal, _the sex talk debacle the following day and, of course, the coup de grace, confronting Kurt's father only the day before. Reggie was beyond speechless. She slowly moved away from her brother and walked out the kitchen and towards the stairs. Blaine followed.

"I was only trying to help," he said.

"I know, Goober, but he's not…his father isn't…did you ever wonder why he couldn't make those faces in front of you?" Reggie sighed and collapsed on the steps. "You know what? Screw it. We're not having this conversation right now."

Blaine sat down next to her and put his hand on her wrist, "Reegan…"

Reggie jerked her arm away, "Look, just because somebody's uncomfortable about sex doesn't mean they don't know anything about it. Hell, look at me. I'm a prime example. Good night!" And with that she got up, stomped up to her room, and, unable to slam her own door, slammed her closet door instead.


	11. Chapter 11

She didn't talk to her brother for the rest of the weekend. Instead, she stayed over at Aaron's, going home only to do her pre-performance preparations. It wasn't so much that she was angry at her brother, but rather disappointed that he could be so thick-headed at times. And it wasn't even that this was what he thought about Kurt. It's that he said it to her. In all honesty, she knew she'd crossed the line and was pretty much embarrassed to admit as much to herself, let alone Blaine. But just, why couldn't he keep his head out of other people's business? If Kurt wasn't ready to have "the talk," he shouldn't have to face "the talk." Reggie never had to deal with "the talk." She simply discussed these issues either in group or with her one-on-one therapist. And even beforehand, she always made sure the guy had way too much to drink for him to even try to put moves on her. Or maybe she was jealous that he was so worried about Kurt and never even thought about talking to her about sex. That had to be it, she decided. She was upset that her brother cared more about a friend's issues with intimacy than he did about hers. Stupid female hormones.

Kurt was at the Sunday performance with several kids Reggie recognized from the Valentine's Day concert. For a kid who was ostracized and an outcast at his old school, he had quite a few friends. He certainly had more friends than Reggie ever had as a member of the popular crowd.

As she stepped on stage, she gave Kurt a big wave and mouthed to him to wait for her after the show. If she was ever going to be able to face her brother again, she figured she better talk to Kurt first. It seemed strange, but she felt she needed to make sure their friendship was still intact and veering towards that eventual relationship she was hoping for.

XXX

"You look so much more relaxed than you did last time," Reggie said after she hugged Kurt hello. "Blaine told me what he did. I am so sorry."

"It's okay," Kurt said as he took a seat. "He meant well. It all turned out okay, really, after the awkward stuff. He told me you were giving him the silent treatment. You didn't have to take my side."

Reggie went to put her fingers through her hair before she realized that it was still full of product, "Yeah, I…that wasn't about you. It was just…he means well, really he does but sometimes he just puts his foot in his mouth and I couldn't be around him for a while. It happens, you know?"

"You never got the talk from your parents?"

"I did, boy did I, right after the first time my parents caught a boy in my room," Reggie took a deep breath and looked away. "But it wasn't the right talk, you know? I mean there's a big difference between what people do between the sheets and why people do what they do between the sheets. I haven't even come to terms with my body. There's no way in hell I'm letting anybody else come to terms with it."

It took a few seconds before Reggie realized Kurt hadn't responded, and that she was still holding her breath. She looked up to see a look blending concern, sympathy and understanding.

Fearing she might have revealed too much of herself, she exhaled, "So anyway, did your friends enjoy the show?"

Kurt's serious face immediately dissolved and was replaced with one of elation. "Did they?" he exclaimed before he went on a long explanation of what each of his friends had said about the show and, especially, Reggie's performance.

XXX

When she got home, Reggie found her brother studying in the living room. As quietly as she could, she dropped her bags, sat on the couch and put her head on Blaine's shoulder.

"I take it you've forgiven me for whatever I did wrong," Blaine said, putting down his pen and giving his sister a huge hug.

"I talked to Kurt."

"So did I. I'm sorry. I didn't even realize what I was saying to you. I forget, sometimes, that what you're going through is nothing compared to what Kurt is and I am."

Reggie did her best to rustle her brother's perfect coif as he turned back to his homework. She then went to get her own work and sat back on the couch, this time on the opposite side and let Blaine put his feet in her lap. They were comfortable like this, two teenagers in an adult-free house sitting on the couch and doing…homework. Why couldn't their parents understand what great kids they had, Reggie wondered. Who knew that being smart could be so…rebellious.

XXX

Reggie was in her room studying, or rather attempting to study since her brother kept pacing out in the hallway without the decency to say anything and it was really getting on her nerves. After about ten minutes, she gave up.

"Goober, get in here!"

"Yes, Prez?" he ducked his head in innocently.

"Oh nothing. It's just that one of the joys of having a portico instead of an actual door, I can hear you pacing up and down the steps, muttering to yourself like a madman. Where's the dapper brother I love so much? This one's pissing me off."

Blaine entered her room and sat on her chair, pulling it over to the bed, "Reegan, is it…can I ask you a question?"

Reggie smiled, "Always."

"With Aaron," he stammered, "how long, how did you know, when was the moment you figured out your feelings for him?"

"You told me."

"Come on, be serious."

"I am being serious. Look," she pulled him to the bed, "when you told me about his feelings, I was in total disbelief but it got me thinking and the next time I saw him, it was like a veil lifted or something and I saw him for him, the concern in his eyes, but also the genuine happiness hiding beneath. And I also realized I enjoyed, truly enjoyed being with him, like I could be myself, even when I was hiding."

"But you didn't tell him in the hospital."

Reggie guffawed, "Oh, hell no and for two reasons. First, there were doubts in mind, like huge doubts. I wanted to be sure it wasn't some kind of fever dream I made up or the meds I was on or being vulnerable. Second, I was in the freaking nut house! I don't know about you but the idea of starting a relationship while being committed doesn't sound like it's bound for a happy ending, does it?"

"Not really, no."

"But then, when I came back, and he was there and I kissed him, I felt home, like really home. It was like Dorothy in _The Wizard of Oz_. I was looking so hard and so far for what was right next door and all it took was a near death experience for my brain to figure out what my heart already knew."

Blaine sighed, "Thanks for telling me."

"Why are you asking this?" Reggie cocked an eyebrow. "Is this about Kurt?"

Blaine blushed, "Kind of, yeah. He did something today that just made me…what did I do without him for so long?"

She put her hand on his shoulder, "You managed. So what are you going to do?"

"I don't know. Every time I've declared my feelings for somebody, it's blown up in my face."

"That's because you make a big spectacle of yourself. And those were also guys you had crushes on, not your friend."

"But what if he doesn't like me like that? What if…"

"No what ifs. He's mad about you. He has been since the day you two met."

"How do you know?"

"Duh, I have eyes. And he told me," Reggie took a breath. "Blaine, you're my brother and I love you but you're an idiot."

"Gee, thanks, Prez."

"Seriously, I know you and I know him. You have the Anderson charm no girl or guy can resist. My advice is tell him…and then kiss him and then you'll be home too."

"But it's regionals this weekend. We're never alone."

"So make up a reason to be."

Blaine hugged Reggie hard, "What would I do without you?"

"Be miserable," she said as she broke the embrace. "And Blaine?"

"Yes?"

"I love you."

Blaine got up and turned to leave, "I love you too."


End file.
